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Chewing Gum Can Help In Weight Loss, But Don't Do It
Posted by: Dr. Mercola
January 02 2000 | 4,840 views

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. have discovered that chewing gum raises your metabolic rate by about 20 percent, and an all-day sugar-free gum-chewer burns off the equivalent of 11 pounds of extra weight per year.

Researchers hooked up seven students to a machine that uses the content of exhaled air to measure how much energy the body is consuming. During a 30-minute rest period, the researchers calculated that the volunteers were consuming 58 kilocalories per hour. When each volunteer chewed sugar-free gum at 100 chews per minute for 12 minutes, the rate shot up to 70 kilocalories per hour.A metronome was used to keep a steady chewing pace.

The New England Journal of Medicine -- December 30, 1999 -- Vol. 341, No. 27

http://www.nejm.org/content/1999/0341/0027/2100.asp



Dr. Mercola's Comments:
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A person would have to chew every waking hour for one year to lose 11 pounds. This is clearly not the way to lose weight. I only print it to show some of the nonsense that traditional approaches take. They tend to ignore some basic bodily functions. One should rarely, if ever chew gum. There are neurological connections between the jaw and your pancreas. The act of chewing stimulates the pancreas to make digestive enzymes. This is why it is so important to thoroughly chew your food.

However, if you are chewing and your pancreas believes it will be getting food it will make enzymes to digest it, but the enzymes will be totally wasted and one"s biochemistry will become unbalanced. It is a huge waste of precious enzyme activity, which is the major reason why people should not chew gum.






 
 
 
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