Chewing gum
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Image:Nikotinkaugummis.jpg Chewing gum is a type of confectionery which is designed to be chewed, not swallowed. Traditionally, it was made of chicle, a natural latex product, although for reasons of economy many modern chewing gums use petroleum-based plastic instead of chicle. Chicle is nonetheless still the base of choice for some "upscale" gum brands, as well as some regional markets, such as in Japan.
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Types
The standard type of gum is a small stick or wad of gum. Gum comes in a variety of flavors, depending on location, and is most often chewed for the flavor. Some brands of gum are: Wrigley's, Dubble Bubble, Orbit, Bubble Yum, Trident, Chiclets, Bazooka, Super Bubble, Freedent, Bubblicious, Fusen Gum, and many others.
Nicotine gum is designed especially for people who are trying to quit smoking. The gum contains a small amount of nicotine to combat cravings, and gives the former smoker something to do besides hold a cigarette in their mouth.
Several types of gum are designed specifically for dental hygiene. There are gums to whiten teeth, clean teeth, and freshen breath.
Composition and manufacture
The chewing gum is made of a "gum base" with added food coloring and flavoring. The exact composition of gum bases is usually a trade secret, but common ingredients can be latexes (eg. leche, caspi, sorva, nispero, tunu, jelutong, or chicle, which is still commercially produced), paraffin wax or beeswax, polyethylene, polyvinyl acetate, stearic acid, and various natural gums.
Old gum bases were based on latexes, vegetable gums like chicle, spruce gum, or mastic gum. Alternative choices were waxes, eg. paraffin wax and beeswax. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana and at Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company are studying the possibility of making gum base with biodegradable zein (corn protein). [1]
The approximate manufacturing methods are fairly constant between brands. The gum base is melted at a temperature of about 115 °C, until it has the viscosity of thick maple syrup, and filtered through a fine mesh screen. Then it is further refined by separating dissolved particulars in a centrifuge, and further filtered. Clear base, still hot and melted, is then put into mixing vats. Here are the other ingredients added: powdered sugar, whose amount and grain size determines the brittleness of the result, corn syrup and/or glucose which serve as humectants, coat the sugar particles and stabilize their suspension, and keep the gum flexible, various softeners, food colorings, flavorings, preservatives and other additives. The most popular flavors of chewing gum are in the mint variety.
The homogenized mixture is then poured onto cooling belts, and cooled with cold air. Extrusion, optionally rolling and cutting, and other mechanical shaping operations follow. The chunks of gum are then put aside to set for 24 to 48 hours.
Coated chewing gums then undergo other operations. The chunks are wrapped with optional undercoating for better binding with outer layers then immersed into liquid sugar. The pellets are then colored and coated with a suitable glazing agent, usually a wax.
Gum and society
Unusual for a confectionery, chewing gum has some health benefits; sugar-free chewing gum stimulates saliva production, and helps to clean the surface of the teeth, whilst even sugary gum may be helpful, as the sugar dissolves out very quickly. Chewing gum has also been identified with improving memory according to various studies. Also, it is known that chewing gum increases blood flow to the brain by 25%. Template:Ref The chewing process expends 12 calories per hour (14 milliwatts) and chewing gum when travelling on an aircraft can counteract the irritation caused by changes in air pressure. Template:Ref Gum containing the sugar alcohol xylitol can help counteract tooth decay.
When spat on the ground, chewing gum will stick firmly and can only be removed with great difficulty. For this reason, the sale of chewing gum has been prohibited in Singapore since 1992. [2] Recently, however, some types of chewing gum (e.g., nicotine replacement gums) have been allowed under strictly monitored distribution. (See Chewing gum ban in Singapore)
The notorious stickiness of dropped chewing gum is described:
- In the words "I want a bubblegum friend, one who'll stick with me." in a song in the Jay Jay the Jet Plane episode "Missing You".
- In various incidents real and fictional when chewed chewing gum is used as an impromptu adhesive to patch a small hole, e.g. in a rocket pack's fuel tank in the movie The Rocketeer.
An old wives' tale states that chewing gum, if swallowed, may take up to seven years to become fully digested, and that swallowing gum could also result in the substance becoming lodged in the esophagus. Chewing gum does resist complete digestion by the body, it is generally expelled like other foods in 95% of individuals, though relatively unchanged. [3] In rare cases, some individuals who have been known to swallow chewing-gum regularly and who are predisposed can unfortunately aid the growth of bezoars within their stomachs or intestines.
Some people find these features of chewing gum irritating:
- Seeing people chewing continually without eating or swallowing. (Sometimes compared to a cow chewing its cud.)
- The unclear distorted speech that results when people talk with chewing gum in their mouths, including when that speech is then subjected to more distortions, e.g. from being transmitted over a telephone or radio link.
- The snapping noise some gum chewers make when small air bubbles are trapped in the gum and then popped by further chewing.
In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, there is a gum-addicted girl called Violet Beauregarde.
The British singer Lonnie Donegan achieved some success with his 1959 novelty song entitled Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour On The Bedpost Overnight?
Michael Jordan would often chew gum during basketball games because he believed that it helped him concentrate.
Gum and military
The U.S. Armed Forces have regulary supplied soldiers with chewing gum since World War I because it helped both to improve the soldiers' concentration and to relieve stress. Recent studies show chewing gum can also improve one's mood. As of 2005, the US military is sponsoring development of a chewing gum formulation with an antibacterial agent, which should be able to replace conventional oral hygiene methods in the battlefield. [4]
Footnotes
See also
de:Kaugummi es:Chicle et:Närimiskumm fi:Purukumi fr:Chewing-gum he:מסטיק ja:ガム nl:Kauwgum pt:Chiclete