Chewing gum is a personal habit. On the one hand, chewing gum can exercise facial muscles, make them elastic enough, and make facial skin look more shiny. Secondly, chewing gum can make gums more stable, and there are few cases of tooth loss in the later stage, just as people say. Thirdly, chewing gum can make your breath fresh, which should be a common understanding of chewing gum by many people. Therefore, chewing gum has many benefits. It is said that the Swedes recently unearthed a piece of chewing gum residue from 9000 years ago. The most amazing thing is that there is also a hungry tooth mark left by a stone age teenager. It seems that people like chewing gum for a long time, but China's chewing gum has not such a long history. It was not until the 1940s that chewing gum was introduced into China from the west. Nowadays, although chewing gum has become a very popular consumer product, many people may not know that chewing gum is a kind of hobby food that does not provide the nutrition needed by the human body. While this chewy food is very popular, what kind of feeling do consumers feel when chewing? Consumer 1: Why do you want to eat gum? Is it oral health, or is it because of the taste after meals? Consumer 2: I think chewing gum can beautify the face. Consumer 3: I think chewing gum often dries, which may be harmful to health. Consumer 4: I don't know what effect that kind of chewing gum will have on the stomach. Consumer 5: I heard that chewing gum can lose weight. Consumer 6: Is it addictive to chew gum or chew it often? Does this do us any harm? You see, a small piece of chewing gum chews so many feelings in people's hungry mouths that some consumers can hardly live without sugar, which has really become a habit and hobby. Here, the first thing to explain is that chewing gum is a hobby food, but it is different from alcohol and tobacco. The raw materials of chewing gum do not contain ingredients that make people psychologically and physically dependent, and will not cause harm to the body like tobacco and alcohol. If you always want to eat chewing gum, you are only attracted by the pleasure of chewing, and you will not rely on chewing gum. But then again, does chewing gum really have so many functions and functions besides providing chewing pleasure? Although there are various brands and packages of chewing gum on the market now, the basic ingredients are nothing more than natural or artificial rubber plus sucrose, fructose or sweetener, synthetic flavor and food coloring. In other words, you are chewing rubber, and the taste comes from sugar or sweetener. This kind of rubber and sweetener is strictly controlled by the state, which meets the national standards and generally has no side effects. There are two kinds of common chewing gum on the market now: one is chewing gum only, and the other is common bubble gum eaten by groups. The only difference between chewing gum and bubble gum is that bubble gum is made of gum-based raw materials with good film-forming properties, which can blow out bubbles when chewing and increase the pleasure of chewing. However, experts also remind consumers that bubble gum increases the chances of contact with the outside world while blowing bubbles, which makes it vulnerable to bacteria. In addition, the child's teeth are developing and affected by the blowing force, which may cause abnormal tooth development. Therefore, there are bubble gum on the market now. The reporter saw in the market that chewing gum can be seen everywhere, but the popularity of low-sugar sugar-free chewing gum makes people feel at a loss. So what's the difference between traditional fructose and low-sugar sugar-free chewing gum? Shi Jieping, an expert and professor at the College of Food Science, China Agricultural University: The traditional sweetener of chewing gum is traditional sucrose or fructose. In this case, if you chew this gum too much all day, you will absorb more calories, so it may have a certain impact on their hungry teeth and dental caries, and may cause excessive calorie intake for ordinary young people and some cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases for middle-aged and elderly people. Diabetes may cause blood sugar to rise, so many chewing gum manufacturers use some sweeteners that we have developed now, such as this sugar alcohol stevia as its sweetener to add to this chewing gum. That is to say, low-sugar sugar-free chewing gum is basically the same as traditional chewing gum except that some sweeteners that do not consume calories replace traditional fructose and sucrose in sweetness. Therefore, low-sugar sugar-free chewing gum reflects the meticulous care of merchants to consumers to a certain extent, but no matter how much chewing gum please the market, consumers are more concerned about its function and role. Can chewing gum clean your mouth? To be sure, chewing gum can really clean the mouth and teeth to some extent. There is a phenomenon in our life that may be overlooked by us. Although many foods can be finely processed now, it may also lead to the relative atrophy of our masticatory muscles. Therefore, chewing gum can make people exercise masticatory muscles and bite force during repeated chewing. In addition, chewing gum can also promote oral saliva secretion. Expert Professor Li Peking University College of Stomatology: This saliva secretion plays a very, very important role in people's oral cavity. Let's start with saliva secretion. Saliva is a kind of mechanical washing of teeth and mouth, which can play the role of washing mouth. In addition, there are many antibacterial components and some immune components in saliva, which can kill some harmful bacteria and increase the resistance of oral mucosa and teeth to these harmful bacteria. In addition, there are some enzymes and some buffers. For example, if the mouth is too sour, saliva will have a buffering effect. These effects are very good for protecting teeth and oral mucosa. So to what extent can chewing gum increase saliva secretion in our mouth? Today, the reporter went to a food professional organization to measure the saliva secretion in the mouth when chewing and not chewing. The results showed that the amount of saliva secreted during chewing was obviously two to three times more than that without chewing. These extra saliva acts as a cleanser in our mouth, so people who are often thirsty can also promote saliva secretion by chewing gum. In addition, experts also remind consumers that it is best to eat a piece of chewing gum after meals, because the viscosity of glue can stick to the surface of teeth. It seems that chewing gum has many benefits for cleaning the mouth, exercising our masticatory muscles and promoting the development of jaws. However, it should be noted that some people still need to eat carefully. For example, people with low tolerance of diabetes to sugar should choose some low-sugar or sugar-free chewing gum, and it is best not to chew gum on an empty stomach, which will easily lead to dizziness, nausea and other adverse reactions. Speaking of the function of chewing gum, it seems that many people think that besides cleaning the mouth, they can also beautify the face. Can chewing gum beautify and lose weight? Consumer Ms. Wu is a chewing gum lover. She chews 4-5 pieces of gum every day, and Ms. Wu's experience is unique. Ms Wu: Chewing gum has many functions. First of all, the biggest feeling is that after eating it for so many years, I think it can lose weight. Now my face is much thinner than before. I think it's the gum. Ms. Wu's unique feelings make chewing gum a good helper for beauty and weight loss. Is this experience a coincidence? This is still necessary. Recently, the reporter learned in a food research institution that people's calorie consumption is indeed different when chewing and not chewing, but the calorie value of 0.003 kcal consumed per minute is nothing compared with the calorie value of 3.7 kcal consumed per minute when walking, so chewing gum has no effect on reducing facial fat, and Ms. Wu's feelings are probably just psychological effects. The idea of beautifying the face is far-fetched. Chewing gum can really play a role in the balanced development of masticatory muscles, but there is also a condition that you should chew your left and right teeth alternately, and the chewing time should not be too long. Expert: Exercising masticatory muscles on an empty stomach can stimulate their normal development under moderate conditions. If it is overstimulated, it will be overdeveloped. If the masticatory muscles on both sides are large, it means that they are as big as fried cheeks and cannot play a cosmetic role. So it should be said that you are not tired during chewing. From this point of view, chewing gum, like many other things, should be enough. In addition, experts also remind consumers to stop chewing when they feel tired of masticatory muscles or chew until their mouth is dry, and it is best not to chew gum for more than half an hour after meals. Children should not chew gum more than three times a day, otherwise excessive chewing will make the masticatory muscles tense, leading to grinding teeth or poor sleep. Faced with so much chewing gum, how should consumers choose? Consumer 1: Generally speaking, I choose some brands that I like to make chewing gum. Consumer 2: I think the expensive one is better, because the quality is better. Consumer 3: I think I prefer beautifully packaged ones. Although the choice orientation is not the same, most of them are judged simply by some appearance feelings. In fact, there are two main standards to judge the quality of chewing gum. One is the raw material of chewing gum, including gum base and additives. Good quality gum base often makes chewing gum chew for a long time and has good chewiness and elasticity. Second, the sweet slow-release technology of chewing gum is adopted, and chewing gum with good slow-release performance often lasts for a long time. Recently, the reporter conducted comparative experiments on different brands, different prices and different tastes of chewing gum in the laboratory. The results show that the quality of gum base and the level of slow-release technology are actually difficult to be directly proportional to the price of chewing gum, and the chewing gum using sugar alcohol sweeteners is very different from the chewing gum using traditional fructose in terms of calorie intake. Therefore, consumers can choose chewing gum that suits them according to their own tastes, while people with impaired glucose tolerance can choose sugar-free and low-sugar chewing gum. Expert: in the first aspect, it is necessary to choose some brands produced by regular manufacturers and sell them through normal sales channels, which is the main aspect to ensure the safety of chewing gum; Secondly, we can feel the chewing gum with our hands, whether its elasticity and hardness are moderate or not. Generally speaking, it is better to chew moderate chewing gum. If it is particularly soft, it may have deliquesced or deteriorated in other aspects and is not suitable for selection. Thirdly, we think we can take a piece of chewing gum and chew it to see how hard, elastic and hungry it is. In addition, it depends on whether the sweetener it adds is pure, whether it is mixed with some bitterness or other phenomena. As we all know, another well-known function of chewing gum is to make breath fresh, but it should be noted that this function is related to slow-release technology, which can keep breath fresh for a long time. But even if it can be preserved for a long time, it can only play a temporary role, because people's oral odor is caused by many reasons, so we should find the corresponding primary diseases that cause odor, such as gastrointestinal diseases or oral diseases. Only the right medicine is the fundamental way to keep your breath fresh. 1. Can chewing gum replace brushing your teeth? No, chewing gum can only be an auxiliary cleaning for teeth, because chewing gum can only clean the compressed surface and part of gums, and can't effectively remove food residue between teeth, so brush your teeth when you brush your teeth. Chewing gum can't replace brushing your teeth. 2. Will chewing gum be harmful to the stomach if swallowed? No, because the main raw material of chewing gum is synthetic or natural rubber. This edible rubber is indigestible. Even if it is accidentally swallowed into the stomach, it will eventually be excreted with the movement of the stomach, which will not do any harm to the body. 3. What if chewing gum sticks to clothes? Teach you a trick. If chewing gum accidentally sticks to clothes, it can prevent clothes from being refrigerated in the refrigerator. When the chewing gum residue is completely frozen and then taken out, it can be easily peeled off from the clothes, but it will stick to other objects. You can soak it in ethanol and peel it off. 4. Can chewing gum residue be thrown around? It's best not to, because chewing gum has been repeatedly chewed, and a variety of bacteria have been stuck in the mouth, but once it leaves the oral environment, no matter where it sticks, it may come into contact with live bacteria when it comes into contact again, which may lead to infectious diseases. Therefore, it is best to keep the chewing gum candy paper, wrap the residue and throw it into the trash can after eating, which is far away from infectious diseases and protects the environment.