Chewing Gum For Weight Loss?



There are people who claim that chewing gum helps them control their appetite but does this really work?

James Shikany and colleagues from the University of Alabama have addressed this question in a randomised controlled trial published in OBESITY.

In this 8-week study, 201 overweight and obese adults were randomised to receiving either printed material on good nutrition and chewing gum for a minimum of 90 min/day or to only receiving the printed nutrition information only.

At the end of 8 weeks, there was no signficant change in body weight (although waist circumference decreased by about 1.5 cms) in the intervention group.

There was a small drop in blood pressure (-3 mmHg) in the gum chewers but this fall was not statistically significant from any changes in the control group.

Thus, the authors conclude that chewing gum on a regular schedule for 8 weeks did not facilitate weight loss in these overweight and obese adults.

So much for this RCT – if you have personal experience with gum chewing and what it does to your hunger or appetite, I’d sure love to hear about it.

AMS
Edmonton, Alberta

photo credit: canonsnapper via photopin cc

ResearchBlogging.orgShikany JM, Thomas AS, McCubrey RO, Beasley TM, & Allison DB (2012). Randomized controlled trial of chewing gum for weight loss. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 20 (3), 547-52 PMID: 22076595

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