All Gummed Up

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The Origin of Chewing Gum

The article of Encyclopedia Britannica on chewing gum defines it as the "sweetened product made from chicle and similar resilient substances and chewed for its flavour."  It observes that "Peoples of the Mediterranean have since antiquity chewed the sweet resin of the mastic tree...as a tooth cleanser and breath freshener, and that "New England colonists borrowed from the Indians the custom of chewing aromatic and astringent spruce resin for the same purposes. Similarly, for centuries inhabitants of the Yucatán Peninsula have chewed the latex, called chicle, of the sapodilla tree...an evergreen that flourishes in the rainforests of the region."

Chewing Gum as a Mass Commodity

The article continues that in the 19th century, chicle intended for the manufacture of rubber was instead sold in the form of small portions of flavourless chicle to drugstores "as an alternative to the sweetened paraffin that had itself outmoded the less-refined spruce resin for chewing."  Inventor Thomas "Adams patented his concoction in 1871, and, though the formula was not the first chewing gum patented in the United States, with the addition of various flavours it became the most popular." According to the article, "After World War II various waxes, plastics, and synthetic rubber virtually replaced chicle in chewing gum manufacture. Artificially sweetened chewing gum found a wide market in the United States in the late 20th century, while mint remained the favourite among a wide variety of flavours." - ["chewing gum." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite.  Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014.]

Sugar-free chewing gum of course came later, after sugar substitutes were developed, popularized, and used for other products.

Sugar-free Chewing Gum

Today, several brands of sugar-free chewing gum are commonly sold locally in a variety of outlets, including supermarkets, drugstores (which have diversified and sell non-drug products, including many groceries and consumer goods) and convenience stores. Perhaps the most widespread may be Mentos, which might come in multicolored plastic packs weighing 27 grams, with flavors like winter green, spearmint, cooler lemonade and berry lime - all of them supposed to contain green tea. Mint-flavored Mentos gum drops also come in blister packs weighing 12 grams. . Mentos also comes in plastic jars weighing 52.5 grams.

On the other hand, Wrigley's Orbit chewing gum comes in plastic bags containing 18 pellets each. I have found two flavors, peppermint and sweet mint. The fact that it contains a sugar substitute is used as a selling point, not only to diabetics and dieters, but also as a solution to tooth decay: "For Healthy Teeth, After Eating, Chew Orbit" - a comforting thought for diabetics  and dieters, and for manufacturers of other sugar-free products.

A new Wrigley's product, Wrigley's Extra, comes in two packages. One of these is an 11-gram blister pack, each containing eight pieces, and comes in two flavors, sweetmint and peppermint. The other is a resealable 28-gram plastic pack, each containing about 21 pieces of gum, and also comes in sweetmint and peppermint.

Then, there is Project 7, which appears only in a limited number of outlets, such as in malls, and appears in flavors such as mint julep.

Another product also produced abroad but available locally is Starbucks Sugar-Free Chewing Gum, which is sold in Starbucks outlets.

All in all, just like candies, sugar-free gum products are not yet ubiquitous, but are becoming widespread. Like candies, they are usually associated with children, and this, coupled with the fact that most type 2 diabetics are adults, may be a factor. But the sales pitch that their use discourages tooth decay may widen their market, both among children and in general.