Gum Chewing May Cut Craving for Snacks
SUNDAY, April 19 (HealthDay News) -- You might be able to cut down on snacking by chewing more sugarless gum. During an experiment, people were offered a variety of snacks three hours after a standard lunch and were told they could eat as much of the snacks as they desired. One afternoon the participants also chewed sugarless gum for 15 minutes each hour in the period between lunch and snack time. The other afternoon, gum-chewing was not allowed during that time. The researchers found that people ate fewer snacks and shaved 40 calories off their in-between meal consumption when they chewed gum, compared with their snack consumption when they didn't chew gum. The participants -- 115 men and women 18 to 54 years old, all regular gum-chewers -- said that they generally didn't feel as hungry or as desirous of a sweet treat after chewing the gum. They also reported having good energy throughout the afternoon and feeling less drowsy at mid-afternoon snack time than they did o...