p. 14 | DANGER OF CHEWING GUM

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Aug 23, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 34.

DANGER OF CHEWING GUM.

THE following note from The Hospital is especially interesting as controverting the principal claim of the advocates of gum—namely, that its use aids digestion by stimulating the flow of saliva. Says the journal:

"Attention has been called to the dangers attending the sale of 'chewing-gum' by an inquest which has been recently held at Lincoln on a child about seven or eight years old, who died after eating this substance, which it not unnaturally imagined was a sweetmeat. We would point out, however, that besides such risks as this, the habit of masticating this filthy compound of flavored India rubber is undoubtedly a cause of much dyspepsia. The constant titillation of the salivary organs kept up by chewing this stuff not only causes a drain of saliva, which is most wasteful, but what is more serious still, in consequence of the frequently repeated stimulation to which these organs are thus exposed, they fail to respond to the normal excitation which ought to rouse them to action when food is taken. A constant dribble of salivary secretion is substituted for the healthy flow which should occur only at meal times. The glands fail to respond to any stimulant less potent than the peppermint, aniseed, or other constituents found in chewing-gum; and the more insipid foods, such as bread and other starchy compounds, pass into the stomach unchanged. This is disturbing to digestion at its very commencement, and it is extremely probable that the indigestion for starchy substances, which is so commonly met with at the present day, is largely due to the waste of saliva caused by smoking and the constant chewing of various substances, which we see going on all around. The chewing of gum is thus not only a nasty habit, but it is provocative of ill-health. Unfortunately, when 'chewing-gum' is sold in the form of a sweetmeat it may cause still more serious consequences, being apt to be swallowed by children, who, like their first parents, when they see that it is apparently good for food and pleasant to the eyes, are undeterred by the superscription, 'not to be eaten.'"