Is chewing gum good for you? Wrigley to find out

CHICAGO – Here’s a juicy thought to chomp on. What if the simple act of chewing gum helped you keep your weight down, reduce stress, improve focus – or all three?

Sure, a cynic might reply, just as eating pizza raises your IQ and chocolate-chip cookies make you skinny.

Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., though, is so hopeful of the possibilities that it is launching a multimillion-dollar, multiyear effort to prove the benefits of gum chewing. Citing “emerging research” that suggests chewing may be beneficial, the gum maker has created the Wrigley Science Institute, consisting of an international advisory panel of scientists and research experts who are studying the matter.

Surinder Kumar, Wrigley’s chief innovation officer, says the 115-year-old company has been hearing from consumers for decades about chewing’s benefits – some of which, he contends, are “just plain common sense.” Now it is looking for scientific proof to back up the anecdotal evidence.

The company hopes the results, which won’t be known for another year or so, will give people a whole new reason to chew gum – any gum, although as the world’s No. 1 gum purveyor with 63 percent of the U.S. market, Wrigley clearly would reap the biggest revenue rewards.

Wrigley is so confident of a favorable outcome that it is going public with the effort and already has compiled early research results in a glossy 48-page booklet, “The Benefits of Chewing.”

Current studies are looking into three areas of potential benefits, the company says:

* Stress management: What’s behind the practice of chewing gum to relieve tension? Wrigley cites research showing that it stimulates certain areas of the brain.

* Weight management: As a 5- to 10-calorie substitute for a snack, gum could obviously reduce caloric intake. But does it help suppress appetite? “It’s not that chewing gum has any particular magic, but it can be a useful behavior modification pill,” said Gilbert Leveille, executive director of the Wrigley Science Institute.

* Cognition and focus: Is gum-chewing a way to increase focus, concentration and alertness? Wrigley points to studies that show that it increases blood flow to the brain but would like to see it linked definitively to higher concentration levels.

“People chew gum primarily because it’s a pleasurable experience, to deliver mouth-freshening” and for oral health care benefits, Leveille said.

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