So a few days ago, I read this article on Consumerist: Don’t Chew 15 Sticks Of Sorbitol-Sweetened Gum Per Day. From the article itself (Chewing Gum Sweetener Can Cause Dangerous Weight Loss):
Many sugar-free chewing gums contain a sweetener called sorbitol. Sorbitol is a laxative which is poorly absorbed by the small intestine. An article in this week’s British Medical Journal (BMJ) warns of the dangers of excess sorbitol intake.
The warning comes after doctors came across two patients who had chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain and dangerously excessive weight loss. After lengthy investigations which could not identify why the patients were losing so much weight and had chronic diarrhea and pains, a detailed analysis of eating habits put the problem down to eating too much chewing gum with sorbitol.
One of the patients, a 21-year-old woman, had been eating the equivalent of 18-20g of sorbitol each day. The average stick of gum has about 1.25g sorbitol – so, she was chewing through 15-18 sticks of gum each day. The other patient, a 46-year-old man, was chewing about 20 sticks of sorbitol-containing gum plus approximately 200g of sweets (candy) each day – his total sorbitol daily intake was about 30g, the authors wrote.
So I was talking to Ungsunghero the other day and with all these commercials these days targeting people who want to lose weight, but don’t want to have a restricted diet or exercise, this sounds like the perfect plan. Basically, you just have to chew 10-20 pieces of sugar free gum each day and you’re almost guaranteed to have weight loss. I guess this isn’t much difference than people ingesting laxatives directly, but chewing gum provides some exercise too! Chewing 10-20 pieces a day is almost guaranteed to give you a sore jaw for the 1st few days, so you might want to start off slowly.
There’s also other benefits. Since you appear to be chewing, your brain will think you’re eating, delaying the hunger signal. Sugar-free gum also has 0 calories (sugar free) so you won’t be gaining anything from chewing sugar free gum, but will get the benefit of jaw exercise. Plus don’t forget the nice minty breath you’ll have (or whichever flavor you decide to choose).
Maybe Ungsunghero and I should patent this weight loss strategy. Or maybe it’s already patented…
UPDATE:
Had to make a retraction after RayAlome provided some more facts that chewing does not delay the hunger signal, but in fact induces it.
Ray AlOm3: actually this initiates the cephalic stage of digestion
Ray AlOm3: when your stomach does not receive any food it will start making all sorts of noises and signals
Ray AlOm3: the acid is pumpin, the muscles are contracting but nothing is arriving
Ray AlOm3: and remember the olestra chips
Krunk4Ever: so chewing gum makes you hungry?
Ray AlOm3: it will induce your digestive system
Ray AlOm3: so at the very least
Ray AlOm3: it will make you aware of your GI tract
Ray AlOm3: actually it will make you hungry
Ray AlOm3: because it’ll start the release of insulin from the pancreas
Ray AlOm3: but you won’t be getting any glucose
Ray AlOm3: so if you haven’t eaten in a while it could even cause minor hypoglycemia
However, this does not contradict the fact that you will be losing weight. 🙂