It Doesn’t Just Look Tacky

When I returned to corporate jail a few years ago (after freelancing at home for ages), I picked up a nasty chewing gum habit. At home, I brushed my teeth post-lunch, but at the office, it’s like a treat to pop in two sticks of gym. And, between us friends, I take perverse pleasure in snapping, cracking, and chomping my BubbleMint Orbit as loudly as possible. I’m sure it’s some backlash against my mom’s exhortations to “act like a lady” when I was a little girl.
Anyhoochie… the Moxy-Boss has now convinced me I have to give that little habit up, too. I just now dumped three packs of Orbit into the trash. [sniff]

Why Chewing Gum Is Bad For Your Health
By Dr. Ben Kim

If you chew gum on a regular basis, please consider the following:

1. Chewing gum causes unnecessary wear and tear of the cartilage that acts as a shock absorber in your jaw joints. Once damaged, this area can create pain and discomfort for a lifetime.
2. You use eight different facial muscles to chew. Unnecessary chewing can create chronic tightness in two of these muscles, located close to your temples. This can put pressure on the nerves that supply this area of your head, contributing to chronic, intermittent headaches.
3. You have six salivary glands located throughout your mouth that are stimulated to produce and release saliva whenever you chew. Producing a steady stream of saliva for chewing gum is a waste of energy and resources that could otherwise be used for essential metabolic activities.
4. Most chewing gum is sweetened with aspartame. Short and long term use of aspartame has been closely linked with cancer, diabetes, neurological disorders, and birth defects.
5. If your gum isn’t sweetened by aspartame, it is probably sweetened by sugar. Sugar is most likely the single greatest dietary cause of chronic health problems like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and emotional disorders.

[Thank you, as always, to the Moxy-Boss for pointing to the science while she lays down the tough love.]