August 21, 2025 • 44 mins
While it's not strictly a food, humans have been chewing gum-type stuff for around 9,000 years. In this classic episode, Anney and Lauren blow up the history, science, and sticky menace of chewing gum.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to save a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm any rec and I'm Lauren Vocal Bam, and today
we have a classic for you about chewing gum.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, I have to say this is one that after
we recorded it, I had a lot of facts I
was dispensing at parties. This one had a lot of
like interesting facts that I hadn't run across.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, yeah, weird little corners. Yeah. And this one originally
published in December of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Wow, so long ago.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I know, was there any particular reason this one was
on your mind to bring back horn? Not really.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I was sort of looking through the archive and ran
across this as essentially unlike anything else that we've done recently.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
That is true, It is unlike a lot of things,
to be honest.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I mean, I've based on the sheer fact that we
usually talk about things that are you know, that that
are food, and and chewing gum is certainly food adjacent.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
But yeah, yeah, I feel like I bought my first
pack of chewing gum recently, the first time in a
long time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, how's the false tooth treating you?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
It's it's okay, but it does make me nervous, so
I chew it in the back yeh, of my teeth.
But I feel like I did it because I had
It was something to do with I'm trying to Sometimes
I don't have time to drink coffee, so it's caffeine.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Come.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I don't know what I'm doing a lot of the times, Lauren.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I'm looking for solutions to problems that i'm creating.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, yes, no, good, good for you. How's how does
it taste?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
It tastes good? Is it minty? The problem is always
the mint. But I found a cinnamon flavor, and so
that one's okay. But I do have to worry about
the tooth. All these considerations go into these choices, everyday choices. Yeah,
I just know I actually have gum for the first
time in a very long time.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Oh yeah, I'm proud to report that. Being that we
all work from home now, I actually brush my teeth
like an adult human person after meals rather than just
chewing some gum. I think that's probably better overall, I
would think, so, yeah, that other thing is a good
(02:44):
stop gap. But yeah, but we are getting a little
bit ahead of ourselves. Let us allow former Annie and
Lauren to take it away.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Hello, and welcome to Savor. I am annie Res and
I'm lorn vocal them.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And today we're talking about chewing gum.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Chewing gum, which I'm technically not supposed to have.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Oh that's what you've got, one of those one of
those artificial.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Teeth in there, right. I do, I do, and I
it's a whole story. But the last thing that these
two Russian dentists told me before I left their office
was never again Apple's carrots ice or chewing gum. Wow.
But I do still chew it sometimes.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
And I feel like I'm living on the wild side
that I do.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It's like a risky actually that has fun historical ties,
does it? Well, I mean sort of. I mean like
it's sort of a rebellious anyway.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Okay, yeah, we will get to that. We will get
to that. When I was a kid, I did love
those I don't know if you remember these, but they
were flow pops, yeah, the lollipops, and they had gumm
in the middle. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
I always thought like they were marketed so effectively that
I was like, this is going to be great. But
I actually strongly dislike both hard candy and the flavor
of bubble gum.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So it was never good. It was never a good plan.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah, I think I liked maybe the grape ones.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I can't remember green Apple. That's my favor totally anyway.
Chewing gum what is it? Is it food? Well?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Chewing gum is a non food, partially digestible edible that
we consume using our eating parts.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Hmm, clear as much.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
It's a chewy substance, usually flavored and sweetened and sometimes colored,
that is intended to be masticated without swallowing and spit
out upon end of use.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
That sounds very appetizing. Masticated without swallowing. Yes, I wish
that it said that, like instructions on gum masticate, do
not swallow.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Oh man, I would write the best instructions for all
food items.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Ever.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
All y'all get in touch with me. Yes, this is
a service I can provide. Yes, Oh okay, So yes,
you know what chewing gum is. You chew it, you
don't eat it. I mean part of it is digestible,
part of it is not. Modern chewing gums use an
array of compounds to do those flavoring and coloring parts,
ranging from naturally derived chemicals to artificially derived chemicals. The
(05:28):
sweeteners may or may not be caloric. The chewy ingredient
or ingredients maybe natural polymers derived from rubbery tree sap,
but more commonly these days are synthetic plastics or rubbers.
These formulas are proprietary and kept under wraps a A,
but formulations of buted dyene, diyrene, rubber, polyethylene, and polyvinyl
(05:52):
acetate pop up a lot. I just wrote those, and
then I was like, well, I'm not changing it because
it's funny and so yes, if you, you know, are
familiar with any of those words, those are petroleum products.
Commercial chewing gum is technically a petroleum product.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
The more you know.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
The reason that chewing gum is a solid before you
start chewing it is that your body heat softens it
to a temperature which it's malleable. When you chew it,
the polymers link up, which creates the stretchiness that you
observe if you say, get a piece half stuck to
the bottom of your shoe, or if you blow a
bubble with it.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Get in your hair.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
What a nightmare that happened to me once in middle school,
I had to go home and get a whole chunk
cut out of my head.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
It was bad times. Yeah, it happened to me too,
and somehow got it like right in my banks. Oh good.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, someone like tossed a piece from a moving car.
I was so mad about it, all the indignant that
a seventh grader can muster, which is a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
For you, and thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
If you're wondering how chewing gum is made, well, gums
have different properties, as you've probably noticed, like bubble blowing.
Bubble gum is kind of different from like trident gum
or something like that. Manufacturers play with a lot of
different components to get it right for whatever quality right
may be. You've got elastomers in there to create stretch,
(07:17):
plasticizers to soften the texture, fillers to bulk the gum
up without needing to add sugar, and resins to help
bind everything together. Whatever the ingredients, the basic process for
making a stick of gum goes like this. You create
that gum base and then heat it in drums or
kettles built with blades that cut in your sweeteners, flavorings,
(07:39):
and softeners. When the stuff this gum is a smooth
and consistent you roll it out thick onto belts and
then cool it down. Then machines need it for hours,
hours at a time to help link up some of
those linky polymers. When it's the right amount of elastic,
you slice it into measured chunks, roll it to the
correct thickness, dust it with a nonstick powder like powdered
(08:00):
sugar cornstarch, and then that sheet will be stamped into
not quite individual pieces. As a sheet, they're sent to
dry out a little bit before they are broken off
individually and packaged. Now, if you're making coated gums like
gumballs or chicklets, you use two parallel dyes pressing together
through a column of gum to stamp out the shapes
(08:20):
and then let those individual pieces dry out and roll
them through a tumbler or kettle to coat them. They
might be given a shiny wax coating.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
There you go, There you go. Let's talk some numbers.
In twenty nineteen, the chewing gum market is expected to
generate thirty two point sixty three billion dollars, and three
point nine to five billion of that is from the US,
which is the third largest market. The largest market is
the Asia Pacific region. Followed by Western Europe.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Only three percent of gum sales are gumballs, but the
most popular flavor, not of gumballs of gun in general
is mint.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Ahless my mint.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Probably that's a double wami have meant I can't have gum,
but I did used to participate.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I was big into these food.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Challenges when I was a kid, all right, sure, And
there were these gum ones that we would do. And
one was if you chew enough mint like spearmint gum,
it starts to burn and we would see how many
pieces you could get before the pain it came too intense.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Was the.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Wow. I'm not sure if that deserves the congratulations or not,
but probably not, but when.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
You're a kid, it does.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah. Yeah, that's major props.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I was king of the lunch room.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Did you have Do you ever blow bubbles?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah? I was a big bubble blower. I would choose
like those entire packs of Bubblicious.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
There's a record diameter for bubble blowing without use of
one's hands.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I love that it specified. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
This was set in two thousand and four and it
went to one Chad Fell of the States. I'd also
like to nominate Chadfell for best name.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
That's a pretty good name.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah anything that's a verb like okay no.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
But the bubble that he blew.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Was twenty inches aka fifty point eight centimeters in diameter,
and to do it he used three pieces of double bubble.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Three pieces. That's impressive.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
If you are looking to blow a really good bubble.
Science says that you need to chew that gum until
you have exhausted the sugar and probably the flavoring from
it because those molecules can get in the way of
the linky, stretchy properties of the gum base, causing bubbles
to collapse before they reach their full bubble potential.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Oh you don't want that, No, no, no, we could
be speaking to the next bubble record holder.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Oh man, if you d throne Chad Fell, Chad will
have fallen.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
And the prophecy will come true. Please let us know
of that happened. Absolutely. If you're giving a big speech
at the end, I'd like to thank Savor for making
me think I could do it and giving me all
the science I.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Needed to succeed.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
It kind of kind of brings me to a question
I had when we were doing this research, is why
do people chew gum to break records. I thought probably
like bad breath, stress, boredom, and to fight off hunger
is something I've seen, and also, more grimly, as a
way to trick ourselves that we're eating, which is a
(11:25):
problem when you were talking about eating disorders. And there
is a study that shows that maybe it improves memory.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Make little Oh.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Memory is a tricky one, but we have a bunch
about that. We'll get to it towards the tail end
of this episode. I try to chew gum after meals
because it makes me feel better about like my breath
and possible bacteria build up, so okay, like cleaner, yeah, yeah,
instead of brushing my teeth like a grown adult human person.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Sure well, and not everyone around the world, our fans
of gum is I was telling Lauren before we started
recording this. I had so much fun doing the research
for this, and it was definitely the topic that when
I got drunk at Thanksgiving, I.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Was telling everyone all of these gum.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Facts and it's really interesting because you don't really eat
it and it's not water soluble.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Right, The gum base, the flavorings and other stuff are,
but yeah, the gum is not No, it's not even biodegradable.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
No, which means much the frustration of schools everywhere hardened
gum that they stick under desk and it's really difficult
to remove, like really difficult, like a steam jet and
scraper difficult. If you've ever stepped in gum or gotten
it in your hair, then you know this. And one
(12:52):
of London's busiest streets had a quarter of a million
blobs of hardened gum on its asphalt in two thousand
and In Rome, somewhere around fifteen thousand pieces of gum
a day are irresponsibly disposed of in public spaces, and
removing each piece costs the city about one euro.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
It cost city councils around the globe a million dollars
or more to clean up gum up to three point
five billion wads of gum. What Yeah, And because of this,
that's why Singapore band chewing gum in nineteen ninety two.
There are some exceptions now, but largely it's still not
allowed behind cigarettes. Chewing gum is the second most common
(13:34):
type of litter, and some people are looking for ways
to recycle chewing gum waste into plastic like gum tech
cities get serious about this.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
There was a.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Gum summit for action in Liverpool and a postcard that
the involved cities signed that they sent to Wriggley's headquarters
with the message wish you weren't here all cow. Oh wow. Yeah,
it's one of those things where I see gum all
the time and I just never thought about the scourge
(14:08):
that it is.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Oh, I'm so annoyed every time I see a piece
of gum litter somewhere, I'm like, what human has done this?
Speaker 4 (14:14):
And why?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Well you've got the gum in your hair?
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, you have like.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
An origin story for your gum villain. I do.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
There is an artist in London that paints hardened gum
and he's been arrested by police for this.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I think that that's adding that's value value. I mean,
if it's going to be there, it might as well
be artistic.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It might as well be And there's also a theory
that was too dense for me to look into, but
there is a theory that you can like kind of
guess you could map out streets based on where gum is,
like where more gum is. It could give you an
idea of what used to be there, what that place
is like a lot of bars have a lot of
(15:02):
gum out front it because junk people are.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Like, I gotta get my viewer. You don't want the
gum to mess with a flavor.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Anyway. This is what my family got to enjoy during Thanksgiving.
I do love that gum has this vibe to it,
like a Devil may care or a rudeness or boredom.
And one example I thought of is to appear American
in the nineteen ninety eight Godzilla movie with a soundcheck
(15:29):
by one P Diddy. These French dudes chew gum to
convince they're trying to sneak onto an American army base,
and they chew gum to pretend that they're American, and
it totally works the cards. You're like, oh, yeah, yeah,
you totally look American.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I mean, it's a movie. But still, this vibe exists.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
A cultural standpoint. Yeah, perception exists in Godzilla nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Cultural standpoint one of the most important.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I have watched that not once but twice this year,
and I don't know, I've never watched it. You're probably
better off. Yeah, I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Though.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
When I was young, I had a crush on Matthew Brodwicks,
so that that didn't hurt, but uh, I did like
it a lot for a while. Hank A's area, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
I was gonna say, isn't someone that I like? It
was Hanka's area. Yeah, Hank's area is great.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah, well, maybe we'll add it to our ever growing list.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Oh yeah, of movies to watch.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
We really need to work on those. But what we
also need to work on is getting into the history.
But first we're going to get into a quick break
for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. All right, So humans
have been chewing on gum in some form or another
for nine thousand years maybe, oh okay, yeah, maybe. Some
sources suggest that that's about how long ago Northern Europeans
were chewing on birch black tar, possibly for pleasure, possibly
(17:06):
medicinally as a treatment for toothpains, possibly for both.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Hard to say. It's a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Our old pal Pliny the Elder described mastic aka masticated,
a plant based substance that the ancient Greeks chewed on.
And then if we jump ahead to the year two
hundred CE and the ancient Mayan people, they chewed on
chiclay derived from sapadia trees to combat thirst and or hunger.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, Sapadia trees, the botanical name Mantlecara zapoda, are native
to Central America. They're a tall evergreen tree that bear
fruit that look a little bit like a brown plum
which I've red, taste like pears. And the sap that
the trees used to convey nutrients and provide immune defense
within their bark is this white gummy stuff called chicle.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
And the ancient Mians weren't the only ones who were
hip to this either. The Aztecs chewed on chicle too,
enough so that there were rules about the proper time
and place to do so. Single women and kids were
permitted to chew chickl in public, but all other parties
had to keep their chicklay chewing private, typically for teeth
cleaning and breath freshening. Women who chewed gum in public
(18:16):
were viewed as harlots. What yeah, while men who chewed
gum in public were seen as effeminates. Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, that's quite an association.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
It really is. It really is.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
If we move forward through dime and further North, the
Native Americans chewed on a spruce tree resin, and when
the European colonist arrived, they adopted that habit too. In
the eighteen forties we get the first commercial spruce tree
gum thanks to John Curtis, who had the idea to
boil the resin first cut the result into strips and
(18:51):
coatly strips in cornstarch to keep them from sticking together.
That sounds pretty chewing gummy to me. It seems Curtis
had to decided to forge ahead on this chewing gum
path because in the eighteen fifties he set up shop
in Portland, Maine, with the world's first chewing gum factory.
Blas spruce resin gum doesn't taste great and quickly goes brittle,
(19:15):
so his chewing gum venture and the chewing gum ventures
of those that followed closely after him, did not pan out,
so he pivoted to paraffin wax, wax being another popular
throughout the ages, stuff like bees wax has been used
as a type of chewing product. The type of chewing
products I like it, which brings us to Thomas Adams.
(19:38):
Adams was an inventor out of New York, who threw
some unknown circumstances, met up with exiled Mexican president Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
And yes, that is the.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
One from the Alamo who introduced Adams to chickle. But
Santa Anna wasn't interested in pioneering a commercial chewing gum.
He wanted to use the chickla as a rubber substitute.
He thought that the money he got from such a
product would allow him to retake power in Mexico. After
some failed experiments, Santa Ana walked away from the project,
(20:10):
though he did eventually regain power in Mexico. But Adams thought, hey,
you know, this chickl thing might not be a good
substitute for rubber, but I wonder if it could lead
to a better chewing gum.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I like how he's kind of British. I have a
recollection you're doing here.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
That's okay.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
He got more British as he thought about it.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
He was sort of Transatlantic. That's okay. Yeah, history's a
little murky on the dates here, but the By the
eighteen eighties, Adams figured out that boiling and hand rolling
produced a successful chewing gum and started his own company
to sell his product nationwide. His company produced up to
five tons a day oh at its peak, and the
(20:50):
main ingredient in this gum was chicle and it would
remain the main ingredient until the mid nineteen hundreds when
synthetic ingredients became more widely available.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Created in the first place, Yes, working plastics.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
That also helped. And then we got to talk about
a big name in the gum world, William Wriggly junior,
That Wriggly, Yes, that Wriggly. Wriggily got his start selling
soap in his hometown of Philadelphia, soap soap. Also, he
(21:24):
was expelled from school when he was eleven for throwing
a pie at a name plate.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
I just want to include that.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
But anyway, and eighteen ninety one he made the move
to Chicago, and as a way to persuade stores to
stock his wares, he would offer a bonus item like
baking powder for each order made. And it turns out
folks were like, forget the soap, give me more of
that baking powder. Priorities, right, Yeah, So he started selling
(21:51):
the baking powder instead and for the free incentive, taking
baking powder's place, he offered chewing gum and possibly baking
powder was never involved in any of this soap straight
to chewing gum. Yes, chewing gum was the incentive of
the soap, but I like to hope that baking powder
was involved. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, And apparently this gum,
(22:14):
this incentive of gum was a pretty big hit too.
In eighteen ninety three, he introduced two new flavors, Juicy
Fruit and Wriggley's Spearmint. By this time, there was a
lot of chewing gum competition in the market, and Wriggly
decided to spend a lot of money on marketing to
differentiate himself from the pack.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
I can do it too, Lauren.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
This included promotions like sending free gum to millions of
Americans in nineteen fifteen, or free pack of gum to
children on their second birthday. Second birthday, I know, do
baby's chew gum? I thought that was frowned upon. Maybe
the idea was they send it to the two year old,
but the parents.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I'm wearing my disapproval face she is anyway.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
He Wriggly doubted its dubious medicinal properties too, and he
attached it to sex and celebrity and these ad campaigns
were very successful, and the success of them and of
the gum made Wriggly super rich. When he died in
nineteen thirty two, he was one of the wealthiest people
(23:24):
in the United States. These are gum facts that I
had no clue about. Oh, either, fascinating. Wriggly gum was
included in the rations of American soldiers during World War
One and two, as it was believed chewing gum staved
off hunger, thirst, and stress. And for a minute, let's
go back to that example from Godzilla, the nineteen ninety
(23:46):
eight movies starring Matthew Brodwick. Gum was one of the
things people who were having contact with Americans for the
first time associated with America too, Like this is the
first time they might be seeing an American Wow, and
they were chewing gum, and they made that connection in
their brains. And also, the association with sex did start,
(24:07):
and well, it started kind of earlier, but it was
really reinforced during this time, I guess, because.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Soldiers like sex and they like gum. Yeah, therefore, so
therefore that's what Americans like. So therefore, yeah, stereotypes.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Therefore stereotypes yep. Okay, so let's talk about Frank Fleer,
who went a different route to stand out in a
crowded field of gum competitors. Fleer's chewing gum company had
been up and running since eighteen eighty five, but Fleer
was on the hunt for something new. He wanted to
blow up in the gum world. And yes, we're talking
(24:42):
about bubble gum.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
For years he experimented looking for a gum that could
be blown up bubble like. His experiments yielded liber Blubber.
What a fantastic name in nineteen oh six, but he
wasn't quite there yet.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Bliber Blubber was too stick.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I was wondering why I had never heard of this
amazing I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
That is our blover. It's too good a name to anyway.
It's fine, that's very willy Wonka M. One of Fleer's employees,
Walter Dimer, arrived at the first successful commercial bubble gum
in nineteen twenty eight. They called it double Bubble. There
is a pun there with mellow Yellow that song. Yeah, anyway,
(25:25):
we'll work on it.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
We will.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
That's gonna be our first priority after we're dead recording
this episode. If we step back a bit in eighteen
ninety nine, New York pharmacist Franklin Canning came out with
a chewing gum focused on dental hygiene dnteen. Chicklitz, which
is a candy coated gum, debuted a year later. Adam's
company that we were talking about earlier would purchase chick
(25:48):
Litz very soon after their release. And if we're talking
about candy coated gum, the origin store of gumballs remains
a mystery, but a popular legend is that a grocer
out of New York, frustrated with low chewing gum sales,
wadded up the gum and rolled it in sugar and yeah, gumball. Yeah,
(26:09):
I guess so maybe maybe the average American chewed one
hundred and five sticks of gum a year in the
nineteen twenties. That's a lot and it meant a lot
of demand for chicl And this meant that the Latin
American communities that provided the chicle were at the mercy
of market fluctuations. It impacted their entire economies. This led
(26:31):
to what some historians call the second collapse of the
Mayan civilization, a collapse that continues to reverberate in that region.
By the nineteen thirties, a quarter of Mexico's soapadia trees
had been wiped out, and scientists were making grim predictions
that the tree would be gone entirely within four decades.
So gum manufacturers searched for a replacement for chicle, and
(26:53):
they found it in cheaper synthetic things like wax and petroleum.
The US stopped importing chicle from Mexico entirely by the
nineteen eighties, and in the more recent years there has
been a push to bring back chick clay. For example,
a company boasting the world's first biodegradable gum, Chicksa, launched
in two thousand and nine, or Glee Gum out of
(27:15):
Rhode Island Rickley's, in a weird, full circle kind of way,
is trying to come up with a biodegradable gum as well.
So I guess keep an eye out for that. I liked,
I liked what I saw from these places. I can't
really chew gum, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
We're checking out for sure.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
It is.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
It is, and it's nice that that kind of research
is being done. And that's not actually the only research
being done in the technology of gum.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
World, No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Gum materials technology spreads far and wide, and we'll get
into that as soon as we take one more quick
break for a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsorous, Yes, thank you. And
this brings us to a section I like to call
big Gum Questions, where I just wrote out a bunch
of questions and asked Lauren to answer them. I found
answers to most Okay, lot of gum questions.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
You did that.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
It was a lengthy list, but okay, okay. Gum materials
research h so about the sticky problem of gum sticking
to everything that it touches. Researchers are working on it
along the lines of that biodegradable gum that rically is
looking into. Another way to go about the problem is
to look at why gum sticks to things in the
(28:43):
first place. There's a team that's trying to incorporate a
polymer that has a hydrophilic end into gum, that is
a water loving end into gum. That end of this
polymer links up with water molecules like in your saliva. Thus,
as you chew this gum, those polymers migrate to the surface.
Sticky side in, sticking to all of the stickier polymers
(29:06):
and water side out, forming a thin layer of water
molecules on the outside of your wat of gum. If
you should spit this gum out on the concrete, you monster,
it could easily be picked up because of that watery coating. However,
if you have too much of that polymer in there,
the gum will be too soft to chew or it
will fall apart in your mouth. If you have too little,
(29:26):
it'll still stick to surfaces. So researchers are still working
on it.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yes, and that company I mentioned at the top, gum Tech,
I think they it's really cool. They have these like
collection bind for gum and they look like the double bubble,
the pink, delicious, the bubblicious. Oh those containers and gum
in there, and you can buy shoes that were made
(29:52):
in part out of recycled gum. That's so great. Yeah, yeah,
so lots of research being done about that. The next question, Okay,
if you swallow chewing gum, does it stay in your
stomach for seven years? No? Definitely not good.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
When I was a kid, I remember that dread, that
moment of.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Oh, especially if you're like six that's a very concerning thought,
longer than you've been alive.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
That's right, I'm just gonna have to wait it out.
It's like a little buddy in my stomach.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
No, no, no, your your, your digestive system is much more
effective than that.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
So the flavorings, sweeteners, and softeners in gum are all
easily digested by your body, so those certainly aren't gonna
stick around for any amount of time. Really, And although
it is true that the chewy part of gum cannot
be broken down by your stomach or even by the
microbes in your guts, it's not so sticky that it's
gonna like get stuck in there. You're You're just gonna
poop it out.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Hmmm, well, there you go.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Never fear to all those people.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Oh no, thinking about that gum you swallowed six and
a half years ago.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
There, Okay. There are case reports of swallowed gum causing
problems getting stuck in people's guts, mostly though in children
under the age of five who were given gum as
a reward for various behaviors and who swallowed several pieces
of gum every day for a lengthy period of time.
Do not swallow several pieces of gum every day, especially
(31:28):
if you are under the age of five.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
Savor advice in the episode Save Advice. Savor Advice of
the episode. Yeah, okay, here's another question. It's important, very
important to me, because I've had many dates ruined by this.
Does chewing gum help your breath?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
A little salivra production does prevent bacterial growth, And the
act of chewing might help break up some of the
loose plaque on your teeth, and all those bacteria that
are forming that plaque and that are floating around in
there are the things that poop the bad sense that.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Make your breast smell.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
It can also help neutralize any sense of food that
are lingering in your mouth or anything that's coming up
from your stomach. Bodies are so gross. I'm sorry, it's
not I'm just the facts, ma'am, Just the facts.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
All right. Well, how long lasting is the flavor?
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (32:24):
That is a question that varies from gum to gum.
Uh huh, vastly, as I'm sure most of you have noticed.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
But all right.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
The reason that gums lose their flavor over time if
you've never really put your brain to it before, is
that there is a limited amount of a flavor and
sweetener incorporated into the gum base, because if you added
too much, it wouldn't be chewy, it would be dissolvy.
And that's not what you're looking for in your gum product.
As we talked about in our Willy Wonk episode, though,
(32:54):
folks are working on super long lasting and even flavor
changing gums using micro encapsulation technology, stuff that breaks down
slowly releasing or reacting to create more flavor.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Compounds gum science.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I Actually the reason I asked that question was because
apparently that is what most people who chew gum are
concerned with, is how long will the flavor last? And
that's what a lot of the gum companies we're talking about,
they're trying to improve how long their favor lasts. And
then when I thought about it, I realized that most
gums do say like long lasting. Oh yeah on the front. Yeah,
(33:33):
it's a major marketing point, it is. Indeed, what about
this one? Does gum really fight off hunger? I've heard
that it possibly just makes you hungrier?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Okay, if you are a human who snacks when they're
bored instead of when they're hungry, which I'm super guilty
of swapping out a snack, especially something sugary like a
cookie or a candy bar, with a piece of low
calorie gum can help you not eat as much.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Uh huh.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
I'm not gonna say it's going to make you less hungry.
I mean, if you're hungry and you're chewing gum instead
of eating, that's not that's clearly not going to do anything.
But yeah, if you're eating just at a boredom, like
you want to choose something and then you chew gum,
you're only getting maybe like five to ten calories instead
of maybe like a hundred. It's a small difference, but
if you are looking to help control your body weight,
(34:25):
then that can be a factor. It's more like a
single piece in a tool belt than an actual weight
loss plan though, because I mean, you know, a you
shouldn't eat too many things with artificial sweeteners in large amounts.
They can have a laxative effect or cause other gastric distress,
and chewing gum can lead to swallowing air, which will
make you feel bloated, which isn't going to help the situation. Particularly,
(34:46):
and going back to the hunger. Thing effects can definitely
vary when you're trying to use artificially sweetened products in
order to stave off hunger, because basically, your body doesn't
appreciate being tricked. The sweet flavor of artificially sweetened products
can make your body gear up for digestion, and then
(35:08):
when you don't give it anything to digest, it signals
you to eat more later.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Hmmm, yeah, so I guess if you like chewing gum
and maybe you just want to choose something.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, well, okay, And here's an interesting part that ties
into this. Chewing gum has been shown to improve your alertness, attention,
and mood. Why researchers are not sure what's going on here.
All kinds of things have been suggested, from sugared or
flavored gum giving you a pleasure or reward boost to
(35:42):
the act of chewing, sort of priming your body for
further action. The most compelling hypothesis I've seen is that
chewing a positively flavored gum, which is the most scientific
thing I've ever read in my life, the act of
chewing that gum excites you, causing a release of the
stress chemical cortisol. Remember that excitement isn't necessarily a positive thing.
(36:06):
It's just a whoa, hey, gum stuff is happening. It
triggers the release of cordsol, which your body reacts to
by boosting your immediate access to glucose to energy to
help you deal with whatever it is that's stressing you out.
So embarking on this minorly exciting thing of chewing gum,
(36:28):
you're doing some action. You're getting a little bit of cordisol,
you're getting a little bit of glucose release.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
It can help.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
People concentrate well and react faster than they would under
normal circumstances, and maybe that distracts you from hunger.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
I have to say, for me, chewing gum is majorly exciting,
and I am convinced one day I will be at
a fancy function and I'm gonna be all devil make it,
choose this gum, and my tooth is gonna come right out.
That's it. I won't recover from that.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
My social status will be forever, forever. And we all
know that my social status is right up there right now.
I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I'm sure everyone at the party would understand. It would
honestly be like a fun party trick as long as
you didn't like hurt yourself with the tooth, so.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
I meant to do it. That's always the way.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Okay, Oh yeah, yeah, like like Chuck like check over
on stuff you should know has the fun tooth party
trick he does.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Mine isn't as cool as that, My pig tooth, it's
not as cool as his. That's a conversation to be
at off mic. But here's another question I had about gum.
What fruit is the flavor and juicy fruit? And for
that matter, what the hell is tooty fruity?
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Okay, the fruit and juicy fruit? I don't think it
was ever meant to be a particular fruit.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Oh No.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
A rapper from.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Nineteen forty and to be fair, it'd been around a
long time before that. But a rapper from nineteen forty six,
a gum rapper, not like a hip hop performer, Yeah, okay,
called it a fascinating artificial flavor. I would agree, And
tooty fruity, as far as I can tell, is like.
(38:19):
The term itself is an English bastardization of the Italian
tuda la fruda, meaning all the fruits, And I think
it started popping up in Britain as two dy E
Fruity in the eighteen thirties as a candy flavor or
an ice cream flavor. It was the very first gum
to be sold in vending machines and I think eighteen
eighty eight in New York City. Both Tooty Fruity and
(38:43):
Juicy Fruit do contain flavoring agents that include, oh, what's
that og banana? The original smikele Yeah, that that og banana?
And also apple or pear.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Kind of vibes.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
I think juicy fruit also has a citrus element, a
fruit salad kind of thing in Ambrosia.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Yes, ooh, juicy fruit was my go to gum for
a while, and then Big Red took it over and
then probably like mint.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
I never got into cinnamon gum, so I was like,
how wow.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
See hurts. I liked the verd.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
I liked the ver And my final question, do you
really get double the pleasure from double mint gum?
Speaker 2 (39:25):
That is a subjective question that science cannot answer.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Alas Las not today.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Well, thank you very much for indulging all of my
big gum questions. Yeah, yeah, anytime. And that brings us
to the end of this classic episode. We hope that
you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed recording it
and bringing it back.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Absolutely. I do have a couple of updates here. First
of all, I still have not seen Godzilla in nineteen
ninety eight. Annie's just shaking her head at me, which
is fair, which is fair. But the soundtrack has frequently
been played during our D and D sessions by Joe McCormick, so.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
It has which I feel bad about because if you
know anything about Joe McCormack, he loves Godzilla. And the
first time I mentioned this to him, he was visibly
upset and called it soulless. Oh, but it is a
fun it's a fun soundtrack. And Dylan and I have
(40:29):
been trying to get the vinyl for him, and I've
tracked down one. It's lime green with a Godzilla eye
and Lauren. It's very striking, but it's the one that
only has four tracks on it, the main one we
can't find. That's probably for the best, but a good luck. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(40:53):
it's about the right reaction. Yeah, Like, I'm not sure
if you should be right allowed at any rate that.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Low stick chewing gum, that the non sticky chewing gum,
that I talked about is still available in the UK.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
It's called Rev.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Seven. It never took off here in the US. It
was only available for a couple of years sometime before
we recorded the original episode.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Also, as I.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Was doing my requisite googling, I found a number that
we did not include here that I find quite striking.
So okay, the Guinness record holder for the longest chain
of paper chewing gum wrappers has beaten his own record
several times. This is a Canadian by the name of
(41:44):
Gary Duchelle, and he has been at this chain making
for some sixty years. And as of March of twenty
twenty five, which was the last official measurement of his
paper chewing gum wrapper chain, his chain was twenty three
point two two six miles long.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
It's almost a marathon, and it.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Was made up of two billion, nine hundred and sixty
three thousand, seven hundred and eighty nine rappers.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
Oh why yeah, wow, yep, Okay, that's a lot of gum.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
I don't think that he has chewed all of that gum,
because when he started getting really into it, he reached
out to a couple of the gum companies. I think,
I think maybe Wrigley's. Are they the makers of juicy fruit?
The makers of juicy fruit, which is apparently his favorite,
and requested that they send him rappers and they did,
like a few thousand rappers at least, so, oh my goodness. Yeah,
(42:50):
so it's a whole thing. Also, there has been some
really interesting like chewing gum science reported on regarding especially
ancient humans' genomes that we're taken from used birch gum. Huh.
(43:13):
So yeah, so in interesting little tidbits like that, like
like enough that I'm like, maybe not today, but maybe
we'll do a short episode about it.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Oh, I would love to, I no joke, think about
this episode quite frequently, so I would love to do
a little short revisit and with love if listeners, if
you have anything we should add, oh yeah to that revisit,
please please let us know or just any any thoughts
(43:42):
at all. You can email us at hello at savorpod
dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
We are also on social media. You can find us
on Instagram and blue Sky at savor pod and we
do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super producers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
(44:08):
your way.
Hello, and welcome to save a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I'm any rec and I'm Lauren Vocal Bam, and today
we have a classic for you about chewing gum.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, I have to say this is one that after
we recorded it, I had a lot of facts I
was dispensing at parties. This one had a lot of
like interesting facts that I hadn't run across.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, yeah, weird little corners. Yeah. And this one originally
published in December of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Wow, so long ago.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I know, was there any particular reason this one was
on your mind to bring back horn? Not really.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I was sort of looking through the archive and ran
across this as essentially unlike anything else that we've done recently.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
That is true, It is unlike a lot of things,
to be honest.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I mean, I've based on the sheer fact that we
usually talk about things that are you know, that that
are food, and and chewing gum is certainly food adjacent.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
But yeah, yeah, I feel like I bought my first
pack of chewing gum recently, the first time in a
long time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, how's the false tooth treating you?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
It's it's okay, but it does make me nervous, so
I chew it in the back yeh, of my teeth.
But I feel like I did it because I had
It was something to do with I'm trying to Sometimes
I don't have time to drink coffee, so it's caffeine.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Come.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I don't know what I'm doing a lot of the times, Lauren.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
I'm looking for solutions to problems that i'm creating.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, yes, no, good, good for you. How's how does
it taste?
Speaker 1 (02:00):
It tastes good? Is it minty? The problem is always
the mint. But I found a cinnamon flavor, and so
that one's okay. But I do have to worry about
the tooth. All these considerations go into these choices, everyday choices. Yeah,
I just know I actually have gum for the first
time in a very long time.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Oh yeah, I'm proud to report that. Being that we
all work from home now, I actually brush my teeth
like an adult human person after meals rather than just
chewing some gum. I think that's probably better overall, I
would think, so, yeah, that other thing is a good
(02:44):
stop gap. But yeah, but we are getting a little
bit ahead of ourselves. Let us allow former Annie and
Lauren to take it away.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Hello, and welcome to Savor. I am annie Res and
I'm lorn vocal them.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
And today we're talking about chewing gum.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Chewing gum, which I'm technically not supposed to have.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Oh that's what you've got, one of those one of
those artificial.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Teeth in there, right. I do, I do, and I
it's a whole story. But the last thing that these
two Russian dentists told me before I left their office
was never again Apple's carrots ice or chewing gum. Wow.
But I do still chew it sometimes.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
And I feel like I'm living on the wild side
that I do.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It's like a risky actually that has fun historical ties,
does it? Well, I mean sort of. I mean like
it's sort of a rebellious anyway.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Okay, yeah, we will get to that. We will get
to that. When I was a kid, I did love
those I don't know if you remember these, but they
were flow pops, yeah, the lollipops, and they had gumm
in the middle. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
I always thought like they were marketed so effectively that
I was like, this is going to be great. But
I actually strongly dislike both hard candy and the flavor
of bubble gum.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So it was never good. It was never a good plan.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah, I think I liked maybe the grape ones.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I can't remember green Apple. That's my favor totally anyway.
Chewing gum what is it? Is it food? Well?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Chewing gum is a non food, partially digestible edible that
we consume using our eating parts.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Hmm, clear as much.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
It's a chewy substance, usually flavored and sweetened and sometimes colored,
that is intended to be masticated without swallowing and spit
out upon end of use.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
That sounds very appetizing. Masticated without swallowing. Yes, I wish
that it said that, like instructions on gum masticate, do
not swallow.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Oh man, I would write the best instructions for all
food items.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Ever.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
All y'all get in touch with me. Yes, this is
a service I can provide. Yes, Oh okay, So yes,
you know what chewing gum is. You chew it, you
don't eat it. I mean part of it is digestible,
part of it is not. Modern chewing gums use an
array of compounds to do those flavoring and coloring parts,
ranging from naturally derived chemicals to artificially derived chemicals. The
(05:28):
sweeteners may or may not be caloric. The chewy ingredient
or ingredients maybe natural polymers derived from rubbery tree sap,
but more commonly these days are synthetic plastics or rubbers.
These formulas are proprietary and kept under wraps a A,
but formulations of buted dyene, diyrene, rubber, polyethylene, and polyvinyl
(05:52):
acetate pop up a lot. I just wrote those, and
then I was like, well, I'm not changing it because
it's funny and so yes, if you, you know, are
familiar with any of those words, those are petroleum products.
Commercial chewing gum is technically a petroleum product.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
The more you know.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
The reason that chewing gum is a solid before you
start chewing it is that your body heat softens it
to a temperature which it's malleable. When you chew it,
the polymers link up, which creates the stretchiness that you
observe if you say, get a piece half stuck to
the bottom of your shoe, or if you blow a
bubble with it.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Get in your hair.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
What a nightmare that happened to me once in middle school,
I had to go home and get a whole chunk
cut out of my head.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
It was bad times. Yeah, it happened to me too,
and somehow got it like right in my banks. Oh good.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, someone like tossed a piece from a moving car.
I was so mad about it, all the indignant that
a seventh grader can muster, which is a lot.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
For you, and thank you.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
If you're wondering how chewing gum is made, well, gums
have different properties, as you've probably noticed, like bubble blowing.
Bubble gum is kind of different from like trident gum
or something like that. Manufacturers play with a lot of
different components to get it right for whatever quality right
may be. You've got elastomers in there to create stretch,
(07:17):
plasticizers to soften the texture, fillers to bulk the gum
up without needing to add sugar, and resins to help
bind everything together. Whatever the ingredients, the basic process for
making a stick of gum goes like this. You create
that gum base and then heat it in drums or
kettles built with blades that cut in your sweeteners, flavorings,
(07:39):
and softeners. When the stuff this gum is a smooth
and consistent you roll it out thick onto belts and
then cool it down. Then machines need it for hours,
hours at a time to help link up some of
those linky polymers. When it's the right amount of elastic,
you slice it into measured chunks, roll it to the
correct thickness, dust it with a nonstick powder like powdered
(08:00):
sugar cornstarch, and then that sheet will be stamped into
not quite individual pieces. As a sheet, they're sent to
dry out a little bit before they are broken off
individually and packaged. Now, if you're making coated gums like
gumballs or chicklets, you use two parallel dyes pressing together
through a column of gum to stamp out the shapes
(08:20):
and then let those individual pieces dry out and roll
them through a tumbler or kettle to coat them. They
might be given a shiny wax coating.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
There you go, There you go. Let's talk some numbers.
In twenty nineteen, the chewing gum market is expected to
generate thirty two point sixty three billion dollars, and three
point nine to five billion of that is from the US,
which is the third largest market. The largest market is
the Asia Pacific region. Followed by Western Europe.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Only three percent of gum sales are gumballs, but the
most popular flavor, not of gumballs of gun in general
is mint.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Ahless my mint.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Probably that's a double wami have meant I can't have gum,
but I did used to participate.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I was big into these food.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Challenges when I was a kid, all right, sure, And
there were these gum ones that we would do. And
one was if you chew enough mint like spearmint gum,
it starts to burn and we would see how many
pieces you could get before the pain it came too intense.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Was the.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Wow. I'm not sure if that deserves the congratulations or not,
but probably not, but when.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
You're a kid, it does.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah. Yeah, that's major props.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I was king of the lunch room.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Did you have Do you ever blow bubbles?
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah? I was a big bubble blower. I would choose
like those entire packs of Bubblicious.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
There's a record diameter for bubble blowing without use of
one's hands.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I love that it specified. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
This was set in two thousand and four and it
went to one Chad Fell of the States. I'd also
like to nominate Chadfell for best name.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
That's a pretty good name.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah anything that's a verb like okay no.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
But the bubble that he blew.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Was twenty inches aka fifty point eight centimeters in diameter,
and to do it he used three pieces of double bubble.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Three pieces. That's impressive.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
If you are looking to blow a really good bubble.
Science says that you need to chew that gum until
you have exhausted the sugar and probably the flavoring from
it because those molecules can get in the way of
the linky, stretchy properties of the gum base, causing bubbles
to collapse before they reach their full bubble potential.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Oh you don't want that, No, no, no, we could
be speaking to the next bubble record holder.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Oh man, if you d throne Chad Fell, Chad will
have fallen.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
And the prophecy will come true. Please let us know
of that happened. Absolutely. If you're giving a big speech
at the end, I'd like to thank Savor for making
me think I could do it and giving me all
the science I.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Needed to succeed.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
It kind of kind of brings me to a question
I had when we were doing this research, is why
do people chew gum to break records. I thought probably
like bad breath, stress, boredom, and to fight off hunger
is something I've seen, and also, more grimly, as a
way to trick ourselves that we're eating, which is a
(11:25):
problem when you were talking about eating disorders. And there
is a study that shows that maybe it improves memory.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Make little Oh.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Memory is a tricky one, but we have a bunch
about that. We'll get to it towards the tail end
of this episode. I try to chew gum after meals
because it makes me feel better about like my breath
and possible bacteria build up, so okay, like cleaner, yeah, yeah,
instead of brushing my teeth like a grown adult human person.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Sure well, and not everyone around the world, our fans
of gum is I was telling Lauren before we started
recording this. I had so much fun doing the research
for this, and it was definitely the topic that when
I got drunk at Thanksgiving, I.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Was telling everyone all of these gum.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Facts and it's really interesting because you don't really eat
it and it's not water soluble.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Right, The gum base, the flavorings and other stuff are,
but yeah, the gum is not No, it's not even biodegradable.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
No, which means much the frustration of schools everywhere hardened
gum that they stick under desk and it's really difficult
to remove, like really difficult, like a steam jet and
scraper difficult. If you've ever stepped in gum or gotten
it in your hair, then you know this. And one
(12:52):
of London's busiest streets had a quarter of a million
blobs of hardened gum on its asphalt in two thousand
and In Rome, somewhere around fifteen thousand pieces of gum
a day are irresponsibly disposed of in public spaces, and
removing each piece costs the city about one euro.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
It cost city councils around the globe a million dollars
or more to clean up gum up to three point
five billion wads of gum. What Yeah, And because of this,
that's why Singapore band chewing gum in nineteen ninety two.
There are some exceptions now, but largely it's still not
allowed behind cigarettes. Chewing gum is the second most common
(13:34):
type of litter, and some people are looking for ways
to recycle chewing gum waste into plastic like gum tech
cities get serious about this.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
There was a.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Gum summit for action in Liverpool and a postcard that
the involved cities signed that they sent to Wriggley's headquarters
with the message wish you weren't here all cow. Oh wow. Yeah,
it's one of those things where I see gum all
the time and I just never thought about the scourge
(14:08):
that it is.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Oh, I'm so annoyed every time I see a piece
of gum litter somewhere, I'm like, what human has done this?
Speaker 4 (14:14):
And why?
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Well you've got the gum in your hair?
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, you have like.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
An origin story for your gum villain. I do.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
There is an artist in London that paints hardened gum
and he's been arrested by police for this.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
I think that that's adding that's value value. I mean,
if it's going to be there, it might as well
be artistic.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
It might as well be And there's also a theory
that was too dense for me to look into, but
there is a theory that you can like kind of
guess you could map out streets based on where gum is,
like where more gum is. It could give you an
idea of what used to be there, what that place
is like a lot of bars have a lot of
(15:02):
gum out front it because junk people are.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Like, I gotta get my viewer. You don't want the
gum to mess with a flavor.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Anyway. This is what my family got to enjoy during Thanksgiving.
I do love that gum has this vibe to it,
like a Devil may care or a rudeness or boredom.
And one example I thought of is to appear American
in the nineteen ninety eight Godzilla movie with a soundcheck
(15:29):
by one P Diddy. These French dudes chew gum to
convince they're trying to sneak onto an American army base,
and they chew gum to pretend that they're American, and
it totally works the cards. You're like, oh, yeah, yeah,
you totally look American.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
I mean, it's a movie. But still, this vibe exists.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
A cultural standpoint. Yeah, perception exists in Godzilla nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Cultural standpoint one of the most important.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I have watched that not once but twice this year,
and I don't know, I've never watched it. You're probably
better off. Yeah, I enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
Though.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
When I was young, I had a crush on Matthew Brodwicks,
so that that didn't hurt, but uh, I did like
it a lot for a while. Hank A's area, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (16:16):
I was gonna say, isn't someone that I like? It
was Hanka's area. Yeah, Hank's area is great.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Yeah, well, maybe we'll add it to our ever growing list.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Oh yeah, of movies to watch.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
We really need to work on those. But what we
also need to work on is getting into the history.
But first we're going to get into a quick break
for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you. All right, So humans
have been chewing on gum in some form or another
for nine thousand years maybe, oh okay, yeah, maybe. Some
sources suggest that that's about how long ago Northern Europeans
were chewing on birch black tar, possibly for pleasure, possibly
(17:06):
medicinally as a treatment for toothpains, possibly for both.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Hard to say. It's a long time ago.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Our old pal Pliny the Elder described mastic aka masticated,
a plant based substance that the ancient Greeks chewed on.
And then if we jump ahead to the year two
hundred CE and the ancient Mayan people, they chewed on
chiclay derived from sapadia trees to combat thirst and or hunger.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, Sapadia trees, the botanical name Mantlecara zapoda, are native
to Central America. They're a tall evergreen tree that bear
fruit that look a little bit like a brown plum
which I've red, taste like pears. And the sap that
the trees used to convey nutrients and provide immune defense
within their bark is this white gummy stuff called chicle.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
And the ancient Mians weren't the only ones who were
hip to this either. The Aztecs chewed on chicle too,
enough so that there were rules about the proper time
and place to do so. Single women and kids were
permitted to chew chickl in public, but all other parties
had to keep their chicklay chewing private, typically for teeth
cleaning and breath freshening. Women who chewed gum in public
(18:16):
were viewed as harlots. What yeah, while men who chewed
gum in public were seen as effeminates. Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Yeah, that's quite an association.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
It really is. It really is.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
If we move forward through dime and further North, the
Native Americans chewed on a spruce tree resin, and when
the European colonist arrived, they adopted that habit too. In
the eighteen forties we get the first commercial spruce tree
gum thanks to John Curtis, who had the idea to
boil the resin first cut the result into strips and
(18:51):
coatly strips in cornstarch to keep them from sticking together.
That sounds pretty chewing gummy to me. It seems Curtis
had to decided to forge ahead on this chewing gum
path because in the eighteen fifties he set up shop
in Portland, Maine, with the world's first chewing gum factory.
Blas spruce resin gum doesn't taste great and quickly goes brittle,
(19:15):
so his chewing gum venture and the chewing gum ventures
of those that followed closely after him, did not pan out,
so he pivoted to paraffin wax, wax being another popular
throughout the ages, stuff like bees wax has been used
as a type of chewing product. The type of chewing
products I like it, which brings us to Thomas Adams.
(19:38):
Adams was an inventor out of New York, who threw
some unknown circumstances, met up with exiled Mexican president Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
And yes, that is the.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
One from the Alamo who introduced Adams to chickle. But
Santa Anna wasn't interested in pioneering a commercial chewing gum.
He wanted to use the chickla as a rubber substitute.
He thought that the money he got from such a
product would allow him to retake power in Mexico. After
some failed experiments, Santa Ana walked away from the project,
(20:10):
though he did eventually regain power in Mexico. But Adams thought, hey,
you know, this chickl thing might not be a good
substitute for rubber, but I wonder if it could lead
to a better chewing gum.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I like how he's kind of British. I have a
recollection you're doing here.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
That's okay.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
He got more British as he thought about it.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
He was sort of Transatlantic. That's okay. Yeah, history's a
little murky on the dates here, but the By the
eighteen eighties, Adams figured out that boiling and hand rolling
produced a successful chewing gum and started his own company
to sell his product nationwide. His company produced up to
five tons a day oh at its peak, and the
(20:50):
main ingredient in this gum was chicle and it would
remain the main ingredient until the mid nineteen hundreds when
synthetic ingredients became more widely available.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Created in the first place, Yes, working plastics.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
That also helped. And then we got to talk about
a big name in the gum world, William Wriggly junior,
That Wriggly, Yes, that Wriggly. Wriggily got his start selling
soap in his hometown of Philadelphia, soap soap. Also, he
(21:24):
was expelled from school when he was eleven for throwing
a pie at a name plate.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
I just want to include that.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
But anyway, and eighteen ninety one he made the move
to Chicago, and as a way to persuade stores to
stock his wares, he would offer a bonus item like
baking powder for each order made. And it turns out
folks were like, forget the soap, give me more of
that baking powder. Priorities, right, Yeah, So he started selling
(21:51):
the baking powder instead and for the free incentive, taking
baking powder's place, he offered chewing gum and possibly baking
powder was never involved in any of this soap straight
to chewing gum. Yes, chewing gum was the incentive of
the soap, but I like to hope that baking powder
was involved. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, And apparently this gum,
(22:14):
this incentive of gum was a pretty big hit too.
In eighteen ninety three, he introduced two new flavors, Juicy
Fruit and Wriggley's Spearmint. By this time, there was a
lot of chewing gum competition in the market, and Wriggly
decided to spend a lot of money on marketing to
differentiate himself from the pack.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
I can do it too, Lauren.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
This included promotions like sending free gum to millions of
Americans in nineteen fifteen, or free pack of gum to
children on their second birthday. Second birthday, I know, do
baby's chew gum? I thought that was frowned upon. Maybe
the idea was they send it to the two year old,
but the parents.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I'm wearing my disapproval face she is anyway.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
He Wriggly doubted its dubious medicinal properties too, and he
attached it to sex and celebrity and these ad campaigns
were very successful, and the success of them and of
the gum made Wriggly super rich. When he died in
nineteen thirty two, he was one of the wealthiest people
(23:24):
in the United States. These are gum facts that I
had no clue about. Oh, either, fascinating. Wriggly gum was
included in the rations of American soldiers during World War
One and two, as it was believed chewing gum staved
off hunger, thirst, and stress. And for a minute, let's
go back to that example from Godzilla, the nineteen ninety
(23:46):
eight movies starring Matthew Brodwick. Gum was one of the
things people who were having contact with Americans for the
first time associated with America too, Like this is the
first time they might be seeing an American Wow, and
they were chewing gum, and they made that connection in
their brains. And also, the association with sex did start,
(24:07):
and well, it started kind of earlier, but it was
really reinforced during this time, I guess, because.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Soldiers like sex and they like gum. Yeah, therefore, so
therefore that's what Americans like. So therefore, yeah, stereotypes.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Therefore stereotypes yep. Okay, so let's talk about Frank Fleer,
who went a different route to stand out in a
crowded field of gum competitors. Fleer's chewing gum company had
been up and running since eighteen eighty five, but Fleer
was on the hunt for something new. He wanted to
blow up in the gum world. And yes, we're talking
(24:42):
about bubble gum.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
For years he experimented looking for a gum that could
be blown up bubble like. His experiments yielded liber Blubber.
What a fantastic name in nineteen oh six, but he
wasn't quite there yet.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Bliber Blubber was too stick.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I was wondering why I had never heard of this
amazing I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
That is our blover. It's too good a name to anyway.
It's fine, that's very willy Wonka M. One of Fleer's employees,
Walter Dimer, arrived at the first successful commercial bubble gum
in nineteen twenty eight. They called it double Bubble. There
is a pun there with mellow Yellow that song. Yeah, anyway,
(25:25):
we'll work on it.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
We will.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
That's gonna be our first priority after we're dead recording
this episode. If we step back a bit in eighteen
ninety nine, New York pharmacist Franklin Canning came out with
a chewing gum focused on dental hygiene dnteen. Chicklitz, which
is a candy coated gum, debuted a year later. Adam's
company that we were talking about earlier would purchase chick
(25:48):
Litz very soon after their release. And if we're talking
about candy coated gum, the origin store of gumballs remains
a mystery, but a popular legend is that a grocer
out of New York, frustrated with low chewing gum sales,
wadded up the gum and rolled it in sugar and yeah, gumball. Yeah,
(26:09):
I guess so maybe maybe the average American chewed one
hundred and five sticks of gum a year in the
nineteen twenties. That's a lot and it meant a lot
of demand for chicl And this meant that the Latin
American communities that provided the chicle were at the mercy
of market fluctuations. It impacted their entire economies. This led
(26:31):
to what some historians call the second collapse of the
Mayan civilization, a collapse that continues to reverberate in that region.
By the nineteen thirties, a quarter of Mexico's soapadia trees
had been wiped out, and scientists were making grim predictions
that the tree would be gone entirely within four decades.
So gum manufacturers searched for a replacement for chicle, and
(26:53):
they found it in cheaper synthetic things like wax and petroleum.
The US stopped importing chicle from Mexico entirely by the
nineteen eighties, and in the more recent years there has
been a push to bring back chick clay. For example,
a company boasting the world's first biodegradable gum, Chicksa, launched
in two thousand and nine, or Glee Gum out of
(27:15):
Rhode Island Rickley's, in a weird, full circle kind of way,
is trying to come up with a biodegradable gum as well.
So I guess keep an eye out for that. I liked,
I liked what I saw from these places. I can't
really chew gum, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
We're checking out for sure.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
It is.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
It is, and it's nice that that kind of research
is being done. And that's not actually the only research
being done in the technology of gum.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
World, No, not at all.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Gum materials technology spreads far and wide, and we'll get
into that as soon as we take one more quick
break for a word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
And we're back. Thank you, sponsorous, Yes, thank you. And
this brings us to a section I like to call
big Gum Questions, where I just wrote out a bunch
of questions and asked Lauren to answer them. I found
answers to most Okay, lot of gum questions.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
You did that.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
It was a lengthy list, but okay, okay. Gum materials
research h so about the sticky problem of gum sticking
to everything that it touches. Researchers are working on it
along the lines of that biodegradable gum that rically is
looking into. Another way to go about the problem is
to look at why gum sticks to things in the
(28:43):
first place. There's a team that's trying to incorporate a
polymer that has a hydrophilic end into gum, that is
a water loving end into gum. That end of this
polymer links up with water molecules like in your saliva. Thus,
as you chew this gum, those polymers migrate to the surface.
Sticky side in, sticking to all of the stickier polymers
(29:06):
and water side out, forming a thin layer of water
molecules on the outside of your wat of gum. If
you should spit this gum out on the concrete, you monster,
it could easily be picked up because of that watery coating. However,
if you have too much of that polymer in there,
the gum will be too soft to chew or it
will fall apart in your mouth. If you have too little,
(29:26):
it'll still stick to surfaces. So researchers are still working
on it.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yes, and that company I mentioned at the top, gum Tech,
I think they it's really cool. They have these like
collection bind for gum and they look like the double bubble,
the pink, delicious, the bubblicious. Oh those containers and gum
in there, and you can buy shoes that were made
(29:52):
in part out of recycled gum. That's so great. Yeah, yeah,
so lots of research being done about that. The next question, Okay,
if you swallow chewing gum, does it stay in your
stomach for seven years? No? Definitely not good.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
When I was a kid, I remember that dread, that
moment of.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Oh, especially if you're like six that's a very concerning thought,
longer than you've been alive.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
That's right, I'm just gonna have to wait it out.
It's like a little buddy in my stomach.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
No, no, no, your your, your digestive system is much more
effective than that.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
So the flavorings, sweeteners, and softeners in gum are all
easily digested by your body, so those certainly aren't gonna
stick around for any amount of time. Really, And although
it is true that the chewy part of gum cannot
be broken down by your stomach or even by the
microbes in your guts, it's not so sticky that it's
gonna like get stuck in there. You're You're just gonna
poop it out.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Hmmm, well, there you go.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Never fear to all those people.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Oh no, thinking about that gum you swallowed six and
a half years ago.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
There, Okay. There are case reports of swallowed gum causing
problems getting stuck in people's guts, mostly though in children
under the age of five who were given gum as
a reward for various behaviors and who swallowed several pieces
of gum every day for a lengthy period of time.
Do not swallow several pieces of gum every day, especially
(31:28):
if you are under the age of five.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
Savor advice in the episode Save Advice. Savor Advice of
the episode. Yeah, okay, here's another question. It's important, very
important to me, because I've had many dates ruined by this.
Does chewing gum help your breath?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
A little salivra production does prevent bacterial growth, And the
act of chewing might help break up some of the
loose plaque on your teeth, and all those bacteria that
are forming that plaque and that are floating around in
there are the things that poop the bad sense that.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Make your breast smell.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
It can also help neutralize any sense of food that
are lingering in your mouth or anything that's coming up
from your stomach. Bodies are so gross. I'm sorry, it's
not I'm just the facts, ma'am, Just the facts.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
All right. Well, how long lasting is the flavor?
Speaker 5 (32:24):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (32:24):
That is a question that varies from gum to gum.
Uh huh, vastly, as I'm sure most of you have noticed.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
But all right.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
The reason that gums lose their flavor over time if
you've never really put your brain to it before, is
that there is a limited amount of a flavor and
sweetener incorporated into the gum base, because if you added
too much, it wouldn't be chewy, it would be dissolvy.
And that's not what you're looking for in your gum product.
As we talked about in our Willy Wonk episode, though,
(32:54):
folks are working on super long lasting and even flavor
changing gums using micro encapsulation technology, stuff that breaks down
slowly releasing or reacting to create more flavor.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Compounds gum science.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
I Actually the reason I asked that question was because
apparently that is what most people who chew gum are
concerned with, is how long will the flavor last? And
that's what a lot of the gum companies we're talking about,
they're trying to improve how long their favor lasts. And
then when I thought about it, I realized that most
gums do say like long lasting. Oh yeah on the front. Yeah,
(33:33):
it's a major marketing point, it is. Indeed, what about
this one? Does gum really fight off hunger? I've heard
that it possibly just makes you hungrier?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Okay, if you are a human who snacks when they're
bored instead of when they're hungry, which I'm super guilty
of swapping out a snack, especially something sugary like a
cookie or a candy bar, with a piece of low
calorie gum can help you not eat as much.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Uh huh.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
I'm not gonna say it's going to make you less hungry.
I mean, if you're hungry and you're chewing gum instead
of eating, that's not that's clearly not going to do anything.
But yeah, if you're eating just at a boredom, like
you want to choose something and then you chew gum,
you're only getting maybe like five to ten calories instead
of maybe like a hundred. It's a small difference, but
if you are looking to help control your body weight,
(34:25):
then that can be a factor. It's more like a
single piece in a tool belt than an actual weight
loss plan though, because I mean, you know, a you
shouldn't eat too many things with artificial sweeteners in large amounts.
They can have a laxative effect or cause other gastric distress,
and chewing gum can lead to swallowing air, which will
make you feel bloated, which isn't going to help the situation. Particularly,
(34:46):
and going back to the hunger. Thing effects can definitely
vary when you're trying to use artificially sweetened products in
order to stave off hunger, because basically, your body doesn't
appreciate being tricked. The sweet flavor of artificially sweetened products
can make your body gear up for digestion, and then
(35:08):
when you don't give it anything to digest, it signals
you to eat more later.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Hmmm, yeah, so I guess if you like chewing gum
and maybe you just want to choose something.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, well, okay, And here's an interesting part that ties
into this. Chewing gum has been shown to improve your alertness, attention,
and mood. Why researchers are not sure what's going on here.
All kinds of things have been suggested, from sugared or
flavored gum giving you a pleasure or reward boost to
(35:42):
the act of chewing, sort of priming your body for
further action. The most compelling hypothesis I've seen is that
chewing a positively flavored gum, which is the most scientific
thing I've ever read in my life, the act of
chewing that gum excites you, causing a release of the
stress chemical cortisol. Remember that excitement isn't necessarily a positive thing.
(36:06):
It's just a whoa, hey, gum stuff is happening. It
triggers the release of cordsol, which your body reacts to
by boosting your immediate access to glucose to energy to
help you deal with whatever it is that's stressing you out.
So embarking on this minorly exciting thing of chewing gum,
(36:28):
you're doing some action. You're getting a little bit of cordisol,
you're getting a little bit of glucose release.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
It can help.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
People concentrate well and react faster than they would under
normal circumstances, and maybe that distracts you from hunger.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
I have to say, for me, chewing gum is majorly exciting,
and I am convinced one day I will be at
a fancy function and I'm gonna be all devil make it,
choose this gum, and my tooth is gonna come right out.
That's it. I won't recover from that.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
My social status will be forever, forever. And we all
know that my social status is right up there right now.
I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I'm sure everyone at the party would understand. It would
honestly be like a fun party trick as long as
you didn't like hurt yourself with the tooth, so.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
I meant to do it. That's always the way.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Okay, Oh yeah, yeah, like like Chuck like check over
on stuff you should know has the fun tooth party
trick he does.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Mine isn't as cool as that, My pig tooth, it's
not as cool as his. That's a conversation to be
at off mic. But here's another question I had about gum.
What fruit is the flavor and juicy fruit? And for
that matter, what the hell is tooty fruity?
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Okay, the fruit and juicy fruit? I don't think it
was ever meant to be a particular fruit.
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Oh No.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
A rapper from.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Nineteen forty and to be fair, it'd been around a
long time before that. But a rapper from nineteen forty six,
a gum rapper, not like a hip hop performer, Yeah, okay,
called it a fascinating artificial flavor. I would agree, And
tooty fruity, as far as I can tell, is like.
(38:19):
The term itself is an English bastardization of the Italian
tuda la fruda, meaning all the fruits, And I think
it started popping up in Britain as two dy E
Fruity in the eighteen thirties as a candy flavor or
an ice cream flavor. It was the very first gum
to be sold in vending machines and I think eighteen
eighty eight in New York City. Both Tooty Fruity and
(38:43):
Juicy Fruit do contain flavoring agents that include, oh, what's
that og banana? The original smikele Yeah, that that og banana?
And also apple or pear.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Kind of vibes.
Speaker 2 (38:53):
I think juicy fruit also has a citrus element, a
fruit salad kind of thing in Ambrosia.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Yes, ooh, juicy fruit was my go to gum for
a while, and then Big Red took it over and
then probably like mint.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
I never got into cinnamon gum, so I was like,
how wow.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
See hurts. I liked the verd.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
I liked the ver And my final question, do you
really get double the pleasure from double mint gum?
Speaker 2 (39:25):
That is a subjective question that science cannot answer.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Alas Las not today.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Well, thank you very much for indulging all of my
big gum questions. Yeah, yeah, anytime. And that brings us
to the end of this classic episode. We hope that
you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed recording it
and bringing it back.
Speaker 2 (39:49):
Absolutely. I do have a couple of updates here. First
of all, I still have not seen Godzilla in nineteen
ninety eight. Annie's just shaking her head at me, which
is fair, which is fair. But the soundtrack has frequently
been played during our D and D sessions by Joe McCormick, so.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
It has which I feel bad about because if you
know anything about Joe McCormack, he loves Godzilla. And the
first time I mentioned this to him, he was visibly
upset and called it soulless. Oh, but it is a
fun it's a fun soundtrack. And Dylan and I have
(40:29):
been trying to get the vinyl for him, and I've
tracked down one. It's lime green with a Godzilla eye
and Lauren. It's very striking, but it's the one that
only has four tracks on it, the main one we
can't find. That's probably for the best, but a good luck. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
(40:53):
it's about the right reaction. Yeah, Like, I'm not sure
if you should be right allowed at any rate that.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Low stick chewing gum, that the non sticky chewing gum,
that I talked about is still available in the UK.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
It's called Rev.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
Seven. It never took off here in the US. It
was only available for a couple of years sometime before
we recorded the original episode.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Also, as I.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Was doing my requisite googling, I found a number that
we did not include here that I find quite striking.
So okay, the Guinness record holder for the longest chain
of paper chewing gum wrappers has beaten his own record
several times. This is a Canadian by the name of
(41:44):
Gary Duchelle, and he has been at this chain making
for some sixty years. And as of March of twenty
twenty five, which was the last official measurement of his
paper chewing gum wrapper chain, his chain was twenty three
point two two six miles long.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
It's almost a marathon, and it.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Was made up of two billion, nine hundred and sixty
three thousand, seven hundred and eighty nine rappers.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
Oh why yeah, wow, yep, Okay, that's a lot of gum.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
I don't think that he has chewed all of that gum,
because when he started getting really into it, he reached
out to a couple of the gum companies. I think,
I think maybe Wrigley's. Are they the makers of juicy fruit?
The makers of juicy fruit, which is apparently his favorite,
and requested that they send him rappers and they did,
like a few thousand rappers at least, so, oh my goodness. Yeah,
(42:50):
so it's a whole thing. Also, there has been some
really interesting like chewing gum science reported on regarding especially
ancient humans' genomes that we're taken from used birch gum. Huh.
(43:13):
So yeah, so in interesting little tidbits like that, like
like enough that I'm like, maybe not today, but maybe
we'll do a short episode about it.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
Oh, I would love to, I no joke, think about
this episode quite frequently, so I would love to do
a little short revisit and with love if listeners, if
you have anything we should add, oh yeah to that revisit,
please please let us know or just any any thoughts
(43:42):
at all. You can email us at hello at savorpod
dot com.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
We are also on social media. You can find us
on Instagram and blue Sky at savor pod and we
do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super producers
Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening,
and we hope that lots more good things are coming
(44:08):
your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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