Chewing Gum Celebrates Its Birthday

A chewing gum, soft and cohesive substance everyone’s familiar with, is celebrating its 166th anniversary today. With thousands of flavors available, children and adults can choose whatever their hearts delight: peppermint, cinnamon, banana, or even Coca-Cola.

Above: John B. Curtis, an American businessman was a first man to introduce and sell the very first commercial chewing gum, called the State of Maine Spruce Gum.

The ancient Aztecs and Greeks were also known to chew gum-like substances, made from plants, grasses and resins. Those ancient chewing gums were believed to possess anti-septic and other medical properties.

Soon after Curtis’ invention of the modern chewing gum, Thomas Adams found that chicle-based chewing gum lasted much longer and carried flavors better than earlier paraffin and spruce made gums. Subsequently, Adams improved Curtis’ invention and patented a machine for the manufacture of gum in 1871. By 1888, Adam’s chewing gum, known as Tutti-Frutti became the first chew gum to be sold in vending machines.

Studies have also shown that chewing a gum after a colon surgery can help patients to recover faster. Chewing a gum for at least fifteen minutes four times per day causes increase of saliva production, which in turn speeds up patients’ recovery process by a day and a half faster, reports Science Daily.

Despite popular myths about a swallowed gum remaining in a human’s stomach for years, a chewing gum will pass through the digestive system as quickly as any regular food when swallowed.

However, there have been instances when swallowed gum resulted in medical complications. A four-year old boy once needed a medical operation after regularly swallowing five to seven pieces of chewing gum every day. Eventually a solid chewing gum mass formed which could not be expelled, causing constipation.