Find out how chewing gum can control your appetite.
The study: Wrigley got the idea for the study when many of its customers said that chewing gum helps them to stay focused. To determine if the claims held any merit, they signed on the Baylor researchers to investigate. That team studied 108 students, ages 13 to 16, who attended four different math classes in a Houston charter school that serves mostly low-income Hispanic students. Half the students were given free Wrigley's sugar-free gum to chew during class, as well as while they did homework and took tests. They chewed at least one stick of gum 86 percent of the time they were in math class and 36 percent of the time while they did their homework. The rest of the students did not chew gum.
The results: Reuters reports that after 14 weeks, the gum-chewers had a three percent increase in their math scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills achievement test, a small but statistically significant change, according to Johnston and colleagues. While there was no difference in math scores between the two groups on the Woodcock Johnson III Tests of Achievement, the gum-chewers did get better final grades in the class than their non-chewing friends.
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A different study, also funded by Wrigley, found that college students in a lab who were given difficult computer tasks had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol when they were chewing gum, compared to when they were not. Now if we could only get the kids to throw the gum in the trash and not stick it on the bottom of their desk or chair. The study findings were presented at the American Society for Nutrition scientific meeting in New Orleans.
