Citing "emerging research" that suggests chewing may be beneficial, the gum maker
has created the Wrigley Science Institute, consisting of an international advisory
panel of scientists and research experts who are studying the sticky question.
Surinder Kumar, Wrigley's chief innovation officer, says the 115-year-old
company has been hearing from consumers for decades about chewing's benefits
- some of them, he contends, "just plain common sense." Now it is looking for
scientific proof to back up the anecdotal evidence.
The company hopes the results, which won't be known for another year or so, will
give people a whole new reason to chew gum - any gum, although as the world's
No. 1 gum purveyor and with 63 percent of the U.S. market, Wrigley clearly would
reap the biggest revenue rewards.
Wrigley is so confident of a favorable outcome that it is going public with the
effort and already has compiled the earlier, preliminary research in a glossy
48-page booklet with the upbeat title, "The Benefits of Chewing."
The company emphasizes that the scientists remain independent and their work,
which is being carried out at laboratories elsewhere and not at Wrigley's new
research center, is to be published in peer-review journals.
"We do have very strong reason to believe that chewing has significant benefits
that will bear out," Kumar said in an interview. "We don't know which ones will
bear out, but there are some benefits that will bear out for sure."
Current studies are looking into three areas of potential benefits, the company
says:
- Stress management: What's behind the practice of chewing gum to relieve
tension? Wrigley cites research showing that it stimulates certain areas of the
brain, but wants to go further. "Consumers tell us they use it for that, and
yet we don't understand how that comes about," Kumar said.
- Weight management: As a 5- to 10-calorie substitute for a high-calorie
snack, gum could obviously reduce caloric intake. But does it help suppress appetite? "It's
not that chewing gum has any particular magic, but it can be a useful behavior
modification pill," said Gilbert Leveille, executive director of the Wrigley
Science Institute, which held its inaugural meeting in Chicago in December.
- Cognition and focus: Is gum-chewing a way to increase focus, concentration
and alertness? Wrigley points to studies that show that it increases blood flow
to the brain but would like to see it linked definitively to higher concentration
levels.
"People chew gum primarily because it's a pleasurable experience, to deliver
mouth-freshening" and for oral health care benefits, said Leveille. "While half
the population of the country chews gum, we're just now learning what the real
effects are from a physiological and psychological perspective."
But with consumers bombarded by companies' claims of health benefits in their
products, food analyst Bob Goldin wonders if the gum maker isn't overdoing it
this time. Increasingly, he says, the public sees such efforts as self-serving.
"They've done a masterful job of taking gum to some new plateaus with respect
to imaging and the benefits of gum themselves, with high-intensity gums used
for breath-freshening and with sugar-free good for tooth decay," said Goldin,
of food consultancy Technomic Inc. "But given who's sponsoring it, I think it
may not be perceived as very objective, very impactful."
