Believe it or not, chewing gum can actually improve alertness and memory — well, maybe. At least that’s the conclusion that two medical studies reported in the journal Appetite back in 2002 and 2004, respectively. In these studies, individuals who chewed gum during the learning phases of a specific test recalled test items better than those who did not. Although the exact reasoning behind why gum would enhance memory isn’t yet clear, one simple explanation said that chewing gum increases heart rate, which subsequently increases blood flow to the brain.
What this means for you and your memory: Before you go out and spend your life’s savings on boxes of supposed life-saving secret memory enhancers in the form of spearmint gum, you should know that the jury is still out on this one. Despite those past promising results, more recent studies have failed to find a similar link between chewing gum and memory enhancement, although these newer studies still maintain that chewing increases alertness (no wonder ball players love the stuff so much).
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