5 Common Chewing Gum Ingredients That May Cause

Cancer
Via Mercola Natural Health Articles by communities@mercola.com (Dr. Joseph Mercola)

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By Dr. Mercola

You might not pay much attention to the ingredients in chewing gum because, after all, it’s not actually
swallowed. But the ingredients, many of which are potentially dangerous, do enter your body, directly
through the walls of your mouth.

As with the toxic ingredients in personal care products like lotion, which are absorbed directly through
your skin and into your bloodstream, the ingredients in gum also get absorbed by your body quickly and
directly, bypassing the digestive system that would ordinarily help to filter some of the toxins away.

For these reasons, if you’re a gum chewer, it’s very important to look at what’s in your favorite brand, and
as a recent investigation by The Health Wyze Report showed,1 what you find may put a bad taste in your
mouth…

These 5 Common Chewing Gum Ingredients Are Linked to Cancer and

More
1. Aspartame

If your gum is sugar-free, there’s a good chance it contains the artificial sweetener
aspartame. Aspartame is metabolized inside your body into both wood alcohol (a poison)
and formaldehyde (which is a carcinogen used as embalming fluid and is not eliminated
from your body through the normal waste filtering done by your liver and kidneys). It's been
linked to birth defects, cancers, brain tumors and weight gain.

2. BHT (Butylated Hydroxytoluene)

BHT is so toxic it’s already been banned in many other countries. In the US, it’s often used
as a preservative in chewing gum and other processed foods. BHT has been linked to
organ system toxicity, including kidney and liver damage, hyperactivity in children and may
be carcinogenic.

3. Calcium Casein Peptone (Calcium Phosphate)

Found primarily in Trident gum, it’s thought this ingredient may be used as a whitening
agent or texturizer. As a highly processed milk derivative, little is known about its long-term
ingestion, although casein was previously linked to baby formula poisonings in China.

4. Gum Base

It’s quite a mystery what “gum base” is actually made out of, but the investigators found it’s
usually a blend of elastomers, resins, plasticizers and fillers. Most manufacturers do not
reveal more specifics than this. After all, why would they want you to know that you’re
potentially chewing on petroleum-derived paraffin wax, polyvinyl acetate (carpenter’s glue)
and talc, which is linked to cancer.

5. Titanium Dioxide
 Titanium dioxide is often used as a whitening agent in chewing gum, but it’s been linked to
autoimmune disorders, asthma, and Crohn’s disease and is potentially carcinogenic. One
study found children are highly exposed to titanium dioxide in confections, with chewing
gum containing the highest levels. 2

Chewing Gum for Weight Loss Is a Myth

Many people chew a stick of gum as a way to help them curb sugar cravings and eat less. But chewing
gum actually has little impact on your motivation to eat, your hunger and how much you end up eating.

Research has revealed that while those who chewed gum consumed fewer meals, they ate more at the
meals they did consume.3 Further, their meals ended up being less nutritious than those eaten by non-
gum-chewers. It’s also been shown that people who chewed gum were less likely to eat fruit and instead
were more motivated to eat junk food like potato chips and candy. This is likely because the minty flavor
in the gum makes fruits and vegetables taste bitter.

So if you’re thinking that chewing gum is going to help you control your weight, you’re probably being
sorely misled. This is even true if you’re chewing sugar-free gum, as consuming artificial sweeteners can
cause distortions in your biochemistry that may actually make you gain weight. Studies looking at this
issue show very clearly that artificial sweeteners may actually cause greater weight gain than sugar by
stimulating your appetite, increasing carbohydrate cravings, and stimulating the secretion of hormones
like insulin and leptin that signal the body to increase fat storage.

Chewing Gum May Harm Your Digestion and Your Teeth

It’s often overlooked that chewing has a very primal purpose. Your body was designed to activate
digestion through chewing, and a carefully coordinated neurological reflex activates the production of
enzymes when you move your jaw in a chewing motion. However, chewing without eating food can be
counterproductive. When you chew gum, you send your body physical signals that food is about to enter
your body. The enzymes and acids that are activated when you chew gum are therefore released, but
without the food they’re intended to digest. This can cause bloating, an overproduction of stomach acid,
and can compromise your ability to produce sufficient digestive secretions when you actually do eat
food.

Furthermore, chewing sugar-free gum is often marketed as a tool for dental health, as the sugar alcohol
xylitol, which is popular in sugar-free foods and chewing gum, has been found to help fight tooth decay.
However, a label of "sugar-free" should not automatically be taken to mean "safe for your teeth."

Sugar-free gum often contains acidic flavorings and preservatives that may in fact lead to dental erosion4
even if it contains cavity-fighting xylitol. Unlike cavities, dental erosion is a process of incremental
decalcification, which, over time, literally dissolves your teeth. I generally recommend avoiding gum
chewing, but if you do chew gum, do so only occasionally or right before a meal when the acid and
enzyme stimulation may actually be beneficial. I also suggest you look for natural alternatives, such as
chewing gum made from the chicle tree.

Coca-Cola Tries to Defend Aspartame Use

Chewing gum manufacturers who rely on aspartame to make sugar-free products probably love Coca-
Cola’s new ad campaign, which attempts to assure consumers that its no- or low-calorie beverages
containing the artificial sweetener aspartame are a safe alternative.

According to the ad, aspartame is a “safe, high-quality alternative to sugar." Clearly they’ve not reviewed
the hundreds of studies on this artificial sweetener demonstrating its harmful effects... Center for Science
 in the Public Interest’s (CSPI) Executive Director Michael F. Jacobson issued the following statement in
response to Coca-Cola’s new ad:5

“Aspartame has been found to cause cancer — leukemia, lymphoma, and other tumors—in
laboratory animals, and it shouldn’t be in the food supply. We certainly want Coca-Cola to
shift its product mix toward lower- and no-calorie drinks, but aspartame’s reputation isn’t
worth rehabilitating with this propaganda campaign. The company would be better off
phasing out its use of aspartame and accelerating its research into safer, natural
sweeteners such as those extracted from the stevia plant.”

The same could be said to chewing-gum manufacturers, who continue to pass off their sugar-free
products as “healthy” and even tools for weight loss. It is my belief that the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) could sue Coke and the other diet soda manufacturers, and potentially even chewing gum
manufacturers as well, for fraudulent advertising, as there are no studies showing that the use of diet
sodas or sugar-free gum causes one to lose weight. In fact, diet soda has actually been shown to cause
weight gain.6 If anyone in the natural foods industry attempted to do this we would get a warning letter
from these agencies in a heartbeat.

So please, do yourself and your family a huge favor, and don’t allow yourself to get swept up in Coca-
Cola’s multi-million dollar ad campaigns, which are based on flawed, inaccurate, misleading, and patently
false conventions of thinking about obesity and the role of aspartame.

Tell Coke They're a Joke!

Obesity is a serious public health problem in the United States, and you are being sorely misled by
companies pretending to have a solution that, in reality, only worsens the problem. Chewing gum
manufacturers are certainly among them, but soda companies currently have far more reach. I strongly
urge you to let the Coca-Cola Company know how you feel by telling them to stop their deceptive
marketing of soda products.

Join me in taking a firm stand against false advertising and let your voice be heard. If you’re on twitter,
send a tweet to #CokeCEO to let the Coca-Cola Company know you are not happy with their deceptive
advertising. If you’re on Facebook, please share your thoughts with them on their Facebook Page.
Please also email the Coca-Cola Company to let them know how you feel!

Sources:
Medical Daily July 31, 2013

The Health Wyze Report

Related Articles:
 Sugar-Free Drinks and Chewing Gum Linked to Tooth Damage

Study: Chewing Gum No Good for Weight Loss

Why Coke Is a Joke—New Ad Campaign Defends Aspartame

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