Chewing Gum does not contribute to Weight Loss

Most people will advise you to chew gum to lose weight, but a new study had proven that chewing gum cannot help you lose weight.

The new research suggests that chewing gum might become an obstacle to weight loss because it affects the taste buds.   Those people who had chewed gum before will shy away from eating fruits and vegetables and much likely to prefer candies and other unhealthy food.  Menthol, a chemical present in most gum makes fruit and vegetables taste bland.

The chemical is the same reason why most people will not like to eat sweets after brushing their teeth.  The taste of sweets altered by the chemical present in the toothpaste, making sweets taste funny.

Past research suggests that chewing gum before a meal helps people to feel full, but it never said anything about whether chewing gum aids weight loss.

Christine Swoboda, a doctoral candidate in nutrition at Ohio State University and her colleagues conducted research on 44 people wherein they asked people to play a slot machine-style game in exchange for food.  The participants were divided into those who choose to play for oranges or grapes and those who played for potato chips or M&Ms.

However, half of the participants already chew their gum before they even play the game.  The research team found out that those who chewed gum do not like to play for fruits, which suggests that they do not like to eat fruits during those times.

In a second experiment, the participants were asked to record anything that they ate.  There are times where the participants were asked to chew gum before eating, and there were times where the participants just recorded anything that they had eaten.

At times when the participants chewed a piece of gum, they ate fewer meals.  The finding suggests that during those times that the participants were eating after enjoying a gum, they were fewer nutrients.