Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years — long after the flavor fades and without any clear nutritional benefit.
The habit dates back at least 8,000 years to Scandinavia, where people chewed birch bark pitch to soften it into a glue for tools. Other ancient cultures, including the Greeks, Native Americans and the Maya, also chewed tree resins for pleasure or soothing effects, National Geographic recently reported.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, William Wrigley Jr. transformed chewing gum from a novelty into a mass consumer habit through relentless and innovative marketing. His brands, including Juicy Fruit and Spearmint, promoted gum as a way to calm nerves, curb hunger and stay focused.
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"Are you worried? Chew gum," an article from 1916 said, according to Kerry Segrave's book "Chewing Gum in America, 1850-1920: The Rise of an Industry." "Do you lie awake at night? Chew gum," it continued. "Are you depressed? Is the world against you? Chew gum."
In the 1940s, a study found chewing resulted in lower tension, but couldn't say why. "The gum-chewer relaxes and gets more work done," the New York Times wrote at the time about the study's results.
Gum became an early form of wellness, and companies are trying to revive that idea today as gum sales decline, according to National Geographic.
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But only now are scientists finally beginning to understand the biology behind those long-standing beliefs.
A 2025 review by researchers at the University of Szczecin in Poland analyzed more than three decades of brain-imaging studies to examine what happens inside the brain when people chew gum. Using MRI, EEG and near-infrared spectroscopy research, the authors found that chewing alters brain activity in regions tied to movement, attention and stress regulation.
The findings help clarify why the seemingly pointless task can feel calming or focusing, even once the flavor has faded.
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Chewing gum activated not only the brain's motor and sensory networks involved in chewing, but also higher-order regions linked to attention, alertness and emotional control, the review found. EEG studies found brief shifts in brain-wave patterns linked to heightened alertness and what researchers call "relaxed concentration."
"If you're doing a fairly boring task for a long time, chewing seems to be able to help with concentration," Crystal Haskell-Ramsay, a professor of biological psychology at Northumbria University, told National Geographic.
The review also supports earlier findings that gum chewing can ease stress, but only in certain situations. In laboratory experiments, people who chewed gum during mildly stressful tasks such as public speaking or mental math often reported lower anxiety levels than those who didn't.
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Chewing gum did not, however, consistently reduce anxiety in high-stress medical situations, such as immediately before surgery, and it offered no clear benefit when participants faced unsolvable problems designed to induce frustration.
Across multiple studies, people who chewed gum did not remember lists of words or stories better than those who didn't, the researchers also found, and any boost in attention faded soon after chewing stopped.
Gum may simply feed the desire to fidget, experts suspect.
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"Although these effects are often short-lived, the range of outcomes … underscores chewing gum's capacity to modulate brain function beyond simple oral motor control," the researchers wrote.
"However, at this time, the neural changes associated with gum chewing cannot be directly linked to the positive behavioral and functional outcomes observed in studies," they added.
Future research should address longer-term impacts, isolate flavor or stress variables and explore potential therapeutic applications, the scientists said.
The findings also come with caveats beyond brain science. Although sugar-free gum may help reduce cavities, Fox News Digital has previously reported that dentists warn acids, sweeteners and excessive chewing may harm teeth or trigger other side effects.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the study's authors for comment.
