Is Your Favorite Chewing Gum Safe?

If you knew what was really in your favorite chewing gum, you might think twice before ever purchasing another pack.

Chewing gum was originally used in a medicinal form rather than as a treat. The gum base was derived from natural tree resins and the flavors were extracted from natural herbs and spices. Today, it’s a completely different story, as many popular chewing gum brands are loaded with plastics, rubbers and synthetic sweeteners.

Several years ago, the Discovery Channel aired a segment on modern chewing gums that tells at least part of the story. This video clip is from an episode of “How It’s Made”. The clip reveals that today’s bubble and chewing gums are not what they once were.

Here is what the narrator had to say about the pink-slimy goo being processed into bubble gum for children:

“Traditionally, the (gum) base came from tree resin. Today, it’s synthetic, made of plastics and rubbers.”

Plastics are derived from petroleum. Many plastics are linked to causing hormone disruption and cancer. Is that something that you think that you or your children should be chewing on? This is what nearly all of the big gum manufacturers are using today.

Synthetic chewing gum bases contain PVC-like carpenter’s glue:

The William Wrigley Jr. Company, which is one of the largest chewing gum manufacturers in the world, admits right on its website that it uses “synthetic gum base materials” in its chewing gums. But it doesn’t outline precisely what these materials are, and here’s why.

An investigation conducted by The Health Wyze Report - revealed that many industrial gum bases contain toxic ingredients like elastomers, resins (synthetic), plasticizers and various fillers. These ingredients are typically concealed as “trade secrets,” but the investigation did uncover what some of them are.

What The Health Wyze Report uncovered about at least one gum base manufacturer, the China-based Wuxi Yueda Gum Base Manufacture Co., Ltd., is that it uses polyvinyl acetates, which also goes by the name of “Carpenter’s glue.”

Other synthetic gum base additives include glycerol ester of rosin, which is used in varnishes, as well as cancer-causing talc and petroleum-derived paraffin wax.

Stick with non-GMO chewing gums that use natural chicle and no synthetic sweeteners:

Most sugarless gums sold in the U.S. contain the controversial sweetening additive aspartame. If it is not sugarless, then they are probably loaded with genetically-modified corn syrup and/or beet sugar.

“Chewing gum is easily one of the most toxic products available, and it is difficult to ever know exactly what it contains due to vague terms such as ‘gum base’ and ‘artificial flavors,’” explains The Health Wyze Report. “These reflect trade secrets, and the ingredients probably are made of hundreds of other ingredients that they are unwilling to disclose. Manufacturers maintain that customers have no right to know.”

So what can you do to avoid all this?

Stick with natural chewing gums, such as those made by:

1. Simply

2. Spry

3. Glee

All of these brands:

1. Use natural gum bases
2. No synthetic sweetening agents
3. Are non-GMO

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