Curious question about gum calories

heathersmilez

Is the nutritional information calculated based on the amount of sugar the average person injests while chewing or is it based on full consumption of the gum, swallowing it?

Of course with 4-calorie sugar-free sticks you’ll burn those 4 calories in <1 minute chewing but I was more curious about how many cals you are actually consuming if you chew on a peace of “real’ 30+ calorie piece of bubble gum for <5 seconds just for the sugar fix.

Tonnina

I think it's just the calories are ingested while chewing because I don't know anyone who swallows their gum... Myself included!

NeuroticVirgo

I think it's just the calories are ingested while chewing because I don't know anyone who swallows their gum... Myself included!

Same here.

TheKitsune6

If it's for the sugar fix I would count it. But I only chew sugar free gum and then I don't bother to count it because like you said, you burn more calories chewing it anyway. Just like I don't count black coffee because I burn more calories in the act of drinking it.

heathersmilez

Ok I just googled this and wow, it is a very popular silly question! The consensus is the sugar seeps into your saliva and that's where you get the cals from.

Best answer:

"The calories are from sugar and sugar is highly water-soluble. It dissolves in your saliva, which you subsequently swallow at some point. As support for this, note how the gum is sweet when you first begin to chew it, but then not at all sweet after you've been chewing it for a while".

Good to know!

It's been about an hour with this giant 20 cal wad of gum in my mouth so I say I'm good

auntdeedee87

I eat gum on a regular basis.