Chewing sugar-free gum can cure constipation, according to NHS surgeon Dr Karan Rajan. (That explains why it’s also sometimes recommended for women who’ve had C-sections to help get their bowels moving again.)
Dentists think that the xylitol in some types of gum can help to prevent cavities by increasing your saliva production, too.
And a 2025 systematic review found yet another possible health benefit, suggesting chewing gum “can momentarily boost alertness, modulate stress responses, and potentially activate networks linked to memory function”.
How might chewing gum affect memory?
This review looked at 32 brain imaging studies published between 1998 and 2004. These involved 15 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 12 functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and five electroencephalogram (EEG) gum studies.
The papers they reviewed looked at how things like masticating (chewing) food, choosing specific gum flavours, chewing on one side of your mouth, and chewing gum while loud sounds were playing affected the brain.
One paper found that chewing gum may activate circuits in a part of the mind called the medial temporal lobe, which are responsible for the formation of new memories.
Whether that actually affected participants’ memories in the short or long term was not proven in that particular study, though a 2002 paper found that people who chewed gum performed 24% better in immediate word recall tests and 36% better in delayed word recall ones than those who hadn’t.
Other research reviewed in the 2025 paper suggested that chewing gum could keep us alert and make us less stressed.
Chewing seems to help the brain
Chewing any food, not just gum, has previously been linked to a longer attention span, better memory, and less stress.
Andrew Scholey, a psychologist involved in the 2002 paper, told New Scientist: “One interesting thing we saw in our study was that chewing increased heart rate. Anything that improves delivery of things like oxygen in the brain, such as an increased heart rate, is a potential cognitive enhancer to some degree.”
Still, the 2025 paper suggested that in the case of chewing gum specifically, more might be at play here.
“These effects appear to be driven not just by the mechanical act of mastication but also by factors such as gum flavour, chewing speed, and individual preferences,” the researchers said.
