"chewing" news and stories

The average American chews nearly 2 pounds of gum each year. Most like the flavors or the mouth-freshening feel of mint gums, but there is far more to gum-chewing than what your taste buds experience. Scientists are continually finding new ways that gum can benefit us, from the alertness brought on by the simple activity of chewing to the potentially medically beneficial ingredients that can be added by gum manufacturers to turn it into the "delivery vehicle of the future".

Medical benefits from gum? You better believe it! Studies show that gum chewing is can help fight the development of cavities by stimulating the production of acid-neutralizing saliva. Xylitol, a common gum ingredient, has been shown to have more specific cavity-fighting properties, as well. It can also, as noted above, help to fight bad breath.

Gums available in Europe and Asia have ingredients like green tea extract, calcium and other nutritional supplements that would typically be found in a vitamin pill. Some children's gums already contain Vitamin-C, for instance. In addition to replacing vitamin pills and supplements, some doctors are considering gum as an alternative to pill-forms of prescription medicines because they would make medicine so easy to "take." Of course, the overall effectiveness of such a plan has not yet been thoroughly tested, although it is known that many substances are very easily absorbed through the gums, but because gum "can contain as many as 70 ingredients" it is certainly possible for thousands of different formulations to be put together.

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Candy Addict recently did a review of several graphic artists that paint and sculpt with chewing gum. I think my favorite of the three they list is a series called Gum Blondes by artist Jason Kronenwald. His Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe are great. Candy Addict also mentions GumArt, a collection three-dimensional works from veteran gum artist Jamie Marraccini. These sort of recall the stop-motion animation of early Peter Gabriel videos. Finally, there's Ben Harben, whose Bubblegum Society art (above) imitates the bubblegum life of reality television with portraits of stars from shows like American Idol and Survivor. Candy Addict also has info on "Chew by Numbers" kits.

I used to chew gum all the time when I was a kid. No big shock, I'm sure a lot of kids do. But I bring it up because somewhere along the line, my gum chewing stopped. It's not that I stopped eating candy or junk food or snacks, but the gum was replaced by chocolate and cookies and chips, which probably explains my waist line.

But this summer I've started chewing gum again, thanks to Extra. No, not that Extra. I mean the gum! They have two cool flavors out, Watermelon and Cool Green Apple. They not only sound good, they sound summer-y. I've watched the crazy ads (that damn stick of gum riding the horse at the rodeo) and picked up several packs the other day.

A Swiss lab has created a system of sensors and microphones to help dieters keep track of what they eat. A report from The Wearable Computing Laboratory describes how an in-ear microphone (right) was used, with very high accuracy, to identify various foods based on what they sounded like as they were eaten. Other parts of the system include a collar to detect swallowing and hand sensors to detect "food intake related motions." The lab hopes that all of this automation will make it easier for people to keep track of what they eat, as opposed to having to manually take notes about everything they consume in a day.

[Via pasta and vinegar]

IceChewing.com is a forum for people who chew ice. The general tone on the message boards seems to be one of relief and excitement among ice chewers who are all glad to have found each other. There's a board for medical conditions, such as anemia, related to ice chewing, as well as sections for ice chewing stories and recipes. Oddly enough, I didn't see any posts about the dental injuries that are frequently caused by chewing on ice.

[Via The Knowledge For Thirst]