Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with gum

Speaking English causes bad teeth? Combined with chewing gum, leads to more kids having to wear dental braces? Help me research this one; would like stats and links...

querty — Mon, 11 May 2009 02:11:40 -0800

Speaking English causes bad teeth? Combined with chewing gum, leads to more kids having to wear dental braces? Help me research this one; would like stats and links... (Just a theory) So many words in the English language require you to use your tongue to pronounce a word; most used being the word "the". During pronunciation of these words, your tongue hits the upper portion of your teeth. And I speculate that after thousands and thousands of times with your tongue hitting the upper row of teeth, it would push it out, causing malocclusion. Combine that with chewing bubble gum (blowing bubbles) and other bad habits (teeth grinding), many kids end up having to wear dental braces.

Also, I believe that most Asian languages have shorter characters, pronunciations, and come in short bursts which requires less of the tongue hitting your teeth. Hence Asian people having trouble learning English; skipping all the tail sounds, trying to speak English Asian-burst-style-really-fast. Russell Peters said it best: "When Chinese people speak English, they sound like they are chopping vegetables."

That said, how can I find stats for something like: percentage of population under 18 who wear dental braces, London (English speaking) vs. Beijing (Mandarin speaking)? Or the same stat but for London vs. Singapore (because of their chewing gum ban)?

Again, it's just a theory. Wikipedia doesn't have much on the cause of malocclusion, so anybody familiar with this dental stuff, your opinions, links, and other theories are welcome.

Unusual, exotic, interesting chewing gum?

groovinkim — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:03:32 -0800

I quit smoking after 15 years. Now I'm looking for suggestions for some unusual, exotic, interesting chewing gum. I quit smoking in April 2008 after 15 years. I have no desire to ever begin again but I still periodically crave... something. So I've decided to take up chewing gum. However, the normal brands at the grocery don't taste very interesting and a lot of them contain all kinds of awful chemicals to boot. So I'm hoping to find more exotic kinds of gum to special order online. It'd be ideal if they were natural/organic. I've tried glee gum but it disintegrated too rapidly. I love spicy and strange flavors and am not at all concerned about it being a "traditional" gum flavor. Google pulls up a lot of links and blog posts about creative stuff (often Japanese) but finding it for sale online hasn't been as easy.

What rolling papers use natural gum?

gman — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:05:37 -0800

Are there any rolling papers which use a natural gum to seal? And does anyone know what the gum on Rizlas is?

What can I do with Xanthan Gum?

woebot — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:53:33 -0800

What can I do with two pounds of Xanthan Gum? I've come into a couple pounds of xanthan gum. I know it's traditionally used as a thickener, but as a non-cooker I'm not really sure what exactly I can make with it. Any recipes or other secret uses for this stuff?

Where to get unsweetened chewing gum?

bryanlacksfocus — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:03:56 -0800

I'm trying to find unsweetened chewing gum? I want it to be minty-flavored, but just not sweet, like my Tom's of Maine natural toothpaste. Any ideas? I recently switched to Tom's of Maine natural toothpaste and totally love the fact that it's not at all sweet. My mouth feels so refreshed and minty-clean afterward without any sweetness lingering in my mouth.

I want this feeling in a gum, but so far have had no luck. To clarify, I'm looking for unsweetened gum -- not sugarless. And I do want it to be flavored -- preferably with natural mint oils -- not the tasteless, crumbly tree sap that the Mayans used to eat.

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

Help save my sole!

missjamielynn — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:02:07 -0800

How do I get gum off the bottom of my shoe? My favorite pair of boots are covered in gum on the bottom of them... And the gum seems to have collected various other fun items. So how should I properly clean them?

Does Xylitol taste like garlic?

yfatah — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:25:32 -0800

I have read online that Xylitol is a sugar substitute that has absolutely no aftertaste and yet if I chew gum with Xylitol I get a very distinct garlicky taste in my mouth. Is it just me?

FYI: Dubble Bubble will not be marked as best answer.

Saucy Intruder — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:11:17 -0800

Aspartame-free chewing gum? Posting on behalf of my wife, who is allergic to aspartame. What's out there now that even Doublemint and Juicy Fruit are spiked with the nasty stuff? Googling gave me this, which gives me the V!@G4A heebie-jeebies. Is there anything based on sucralose? Or even something similar to the original Wrigley's mint-flavored chewing gums?

Chewing gum stuck inside the dryer

prodevel — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:23:00 -0800

How do you get a good amount of chewing gum out of a clothes dryer most efficiently. I removed most of it w/a method that I thought was fairly thorough but was less than perfect to say the least. I ran a load of bedding through previous to my jeans and button-downs. Even so, I got a small amount of gum/discoloration on one of my shirts (of course the brand new one.) I'm just happy it was a $15 shirt and not a $60 dollar shirt. I digress. I suspect some parents have run into this before and I'm very curious as to their methods.

I say parents because I've not run into this problem since I was say, 17 and now I've a new roomate.... ;) Thanks a lot.

Long Lasting Gum - How?

bigmusic — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:22:22 -0800

What has changed chemically in the process of these "long lasting gums?" Before a piece of gum would be flavorful for like 10 minutes tops. Now, I can chew on these newer gums like an hour before they are not flavorful. What happened?

Where to find "Wrigley's Doublemint Kona Creme" gum?

Wild_Eep — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:37:50 -0800

I want to buy a pack or two of "Wrigley's Doublemint Kona Creme" gum within the next 24 hours (for my MIL's birthday), but I can't find it anywhere! L'il help, mefites? So she says she's been looking for this gum for about a month, and I've tried all the usual suspects: Target, WalMart, various drugstores, the local 7-Eleven, etc. all with no luck. All the google-hits are from mid-to-late 2006. The only other collection of caffeinated gums I know of are available at thinkgeek.com

Thought I'd throw a 'Hail Mary' and see if anyone is a fan and has seen "Wrigley's Doublemint Kona Creme" or a similar coffee-flavored chewing gum.

Gum on your jeans.

jonmc — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:36:02 -0800

Pantsfilter. Yesterday, at my new job (I maintain the carts outside a bookstore) I managed to place my bejeaned knee directly in fresh chewing gum on the sidewalk and it stuck to it. My wife said to put my jeans in the frrezer overnight and it would come off. No dice. Any other ideas?

a good jaw workout

irregardless — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 12:42:39 -0800

Why does chewing gum go all stiff and inelastic when you drink cold water?

Convenient Herbal Breath Freshness.

Baby_Balrog — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 13:14:13 -0800

I desire some sort of breath-freshening device (i.e. gum or mints) that is all natural and does not contain any sweeteners. I realize this may, at first glance, seem sort of disgusting, but I realized today after eating lunch that I'm completely sick of sticking sugary crap in my face after I've finished a good meal. I'd prefer that the freshness delivery method be at least somewhat orthodox - perhaps some kind of herbal gum that doesn't contain any sweeteners? I have no inclination to carry a pouch of leaves anywhere on my person to facilitate this appetence.

Bubblegum, bubblegum, in a dish... how many pieces?

Glitter Ninja — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 19:05:28 -0800

Will swallowing my chewing gum / bubble gum actually have any ill effect on me? I chew gum sometimes. And when I say that, what I really mean is "When I sit down with gum, I will start chewing and keep chewing until it is all gone." However, most of the time I don't bother to spit it out, having no trash can in range, and just swallow it. Will swallowing large amounts of it (say, 20 pieces of bubble yum in a short timespan) have any ill effects on my health?

If it doesn't, why don't companies make candy bars/etc like chewing gum? (Yes, for the record, I do just plain eat it sometimes. Bad habit of mine, but hey- it's tasty, and it keeps my fingernails out of my mouth.

Seeking Shark's Teeth bubble gum

sleeplessunderwater — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 20:38:49 -0800

I'm looking for a certain kind of bubble gum that's called "Shark's Teeth". The pieces are triangular and white with splatters of "blood", and I used to be able to get them in those gum machines at the mall, but they stopped carrying them over a year ago. There's a little I actually found a website selling it, but it looks just a little skeevy to me and googling their site returns lots of hits that suggest they're less than honest, including this.

So, naturally I'd like to be able to find the gum somewhere else--either a reputable online dealer or a brick-and-mortar in Colorado(the nearer Denver, the better). I'd rather be able to buy a bag of it, but it's tasty enough that if anyone's seen it in gumball machines recently, I'll try that.

Gum trauma causes painful white blister?

shivohum — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 22:58:33 -0800

About 6 days ago I was brushing my teeth and I jammed the plastic edge of my toothbrush hard against my lower right-hand outside gum. There wasn't any blood, but in the days since, some sort of white blister has developed and is sensitive to the touch. It looks like a short (inch-long) line along my gum where the toothbrush hit. Any ideas how long this will take to go away, and if there's anything I can do to speed that up? Thanks!

Looking for help with a question of probability.

rifflesby — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 12:47:07 -0800

MathFilter: Okay, I've got this gumball machine, which contains an infinite amount of gumballs, evenly distributed between 100 different flavors... Unfortunately, the machine is broken, and three-quarters of the time I turn the crank, I get nothing. When the machine does deliver, it has a 1 in 20 chance of giving two gumballs instead of just one.

After how many cranks would I have a 50% chance of having at least one gumball of every flavor? How many for a 99% chance?

Please show your work, as I'm trying to learn how to answer questions like this for myself. :)

Where did the gum wrapper go?

Mirandala — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 09:34:27 -0800

Gum wrappers. Where did they go? I've got a gum wrapper chain (about 30-40 feet right now) that I used to work on during particularly boring conference calls. It was a great distraction - easy to start and stop, great as an office conversation piece. Here's the problem. Wrigley doesn't seem to make gum wrappers anymore! Instead of the 2-part packaging (wrapper + foil) that was once standard, now they just use foil. No wrappers = no gum wrapper chain. So how do I find more wrappers? Are there any non-Wrigley gum manufacturers out there that still use wrappers? I've check EBay, but the majority of offerings there seem to be for vintage wrappers. I'm just looking for the standard kind.

Sticky pink mess

purplefiber — Tue, 23 May 2006 16:14:36 -0800

How do I get the bubble gum out of my car seats? I just bought a used car, and although it's running well and mostly in good shape, my backseat passengers were a little disgusted to discover old bubble gum stuck to the seat belts, seat, and door handles. Probably at least a year old, presumably from the kids of the previous owner. The gum is hard, and pretty stuck. I've scraped away at some of it but it's hanging on for dear life. Is there some sort of tool/cleaning solution that I could use to get it off and make my backseat more hospitable? Bonus points for something that works for paint too (these were messy kids, it seems!). Thanks!

Chewy Chewerson

zippity — Sat, 20 May 2006 00:24:16 -0800

[Chewing Gum] Does this exist? A sugarless, flavorless chewing gum that loses its pliableness the longer you chew it? It seems every chewing gum I've encountered these days keeps its flavor and elasticity for as long as you chew it. Logically these two improvements have been a dream come true to chewing gum fanatics, but not to me!

Call me crazy but I actually long for the days when chewing gum would lose its flavor after about 15 minutes of chewing and would become harder and more difficult to chew the longer you chewed on it.

The closest thing I can come to that old flavorless piece of rock hard gum is by chewing cheap bubble gum, but I'd like to avoid that route since they are usually quite sugary.

What I'm looking for is a gum that's flavorless (or if it does have flavor, it better disappear quickly), sugarless, and becomes difficult to chew after half an hour. Does any gum (or gum-like substitute) like this exist?

Name this weird social phenomenon

snailer — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 14:31:45 -0800

name this weird social phenomenon. google proof. can involve chewing gum. I noticed this weird phenomenon where I live, and have been perplexed by it's reason for being, and also its name...

For those of you from Ireland or with a U2 obsession, you might know the train station where you get off to annoy Bono... (Killiney Station)

http://u2valencia.com/MOS/images/stories/Dublin_Tour/24.jpg

At this station, on the outside wall there is a line of chewing gum stuck to the wall at about chest height, and it stretches all the way from one end of the station to the other. It probably started in the late 70s and now is about 700 yards long. The station is beside the sea in a non-urban location so this chewing-gum-sticking weirdness is mostly done by train passengers.

The thing is, one person started it, but then other people saw it and took the cue to stick their gum to the wall. There is a name for this phenonemon which I just cannot find on the Web, it being a pretty "google proof" concept to search for. I think it began with "Auto" and is a two-word phrase. It was featured in Fortean Times many years ago.

Another example of this that I have seen is gone now, but it was an old dead tree which people stuck a particular type of coin into. The tree was pretty much covered in coins stuck in sideways, until some opportunist burnt it down, sifted through the ashes for change!

I'd love to hear your suggestions about this, and any other examples of this strangeness in your area.

Pepsin flavour

Cosine — Fri, 13 May 2005 11:01:12 -0800

Where does "Pepsin" flavour come from? My girlfriend and I both love Beeman's chewing gum and we've been trying to figure out what the heck "Pepsin" flavour is. It appears to be the same or similar to Winterfresh/Freshmint type of flavours in other gums but is stronger and better. I've used up all my Google karma on it and have a few semi-conflicting bits of info; I've heard that the Pepsin flavour comes from an enzyme extracted from pig or chicken stomachs and upon further searching I learned that Beeman's gum used to have a pig on the package however I've also been told that this is because you could "eat like a pig" and then settle your stomach with Beeman's. Anyone have any idea where the flavour really comes from or what it really is? Did the line about "eating like a pig" just come about when they realized an enzyme from a pig's gut was pretty gross?

How many calories in gum do you ingest from chewing it?

jdroth — Tue, 02 Nov 2004 12:31:36 -0800

Any food scientists out there? I have a bag of Double Bubble bubble gum left over from Halloween. Each piece of gum has 19 calories. How many of those calories am I actually consuming when I chew a piece? (It makes sense to me that I'd actually have to swallow the gum to have consumed all 19 calories, but maybe I'm wrong...)

Why do athletes chew gum?

mdeatherage — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 21:03:16 -0800

Why do athletes chew gum? [no more inside]