History
Gum has been around for thousands of years making it the oldest candy in the world. There are 1000 different types with the most popular type being spearmint gum. Gum did not start out by being the candy that people use to blow bubbles. Chewing gum can be traced back to different civilizations around the world such as the Chinese, Indians in South America, and Native Americans. It wasn’t until 1948 that an American, John B. Curtis, sold the first chewing gum made from resin of the spruce tree sap.
Overtime, factories were opened and ingredients were changed for texture and consistency by many inventors. One man sticks out today as the biggest gum maker in the world, William Wrigley. William was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1914. He was responsible for adding the mint and fruit extractions to the chewing gum. Today the average person chews roughly four hundred pieces of gum each year and spends about half a billion dollars on gum.
Although gum has come along way from the beginning, it has many health benefits besides being used to blow bubbles. Chewing gum can burn up to eleven calories per hour and strengthen the muscles of the jaw. The ingredients xylitol can help reduce plaque and cavities in the teeth although …show more content…
Using gum in school can help students with concentration, increase memory, stimulate and alert the body’s senses, as well as decrease stress and anxiety. Students can experience many of these issues while taking tests that can have a negative effect on their grades. Children are expected to do more than memorize the information being taught. They need to have a clear understanding of and then are tested on that information throughout the year. Studies have shown that chewing gum while completing tests can have a positive effect on the end result….their