No Brain Benefit From Chewing Gum

Researchers have suggested, anecdotally, that chewing gum enhance brain function.

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Researchers at the University of Vienna in Austria wondered whether chewing gum would improve spatial task performance by healthy young adults.

Chewing gum did not enhance spatial task performance in their test. Those chewing gum did slightly worse than controls, but the difference was not statistically significant.

The addition of sugar for the group chewing sugared gum did not provide any benefit over sugar-free gum or not chewing gum at all.

Clinical Implications: Neither chewing gum nor the presence of sugar in chewing gums enhanced the performance of spatial tasks