"Also- I sometimes have difficult achieving satiety. Could this have anything to do with chewing gum?"

I chew gum sometimes and definitely have no problems achieving satiety. I quit for over a year and went back to it because I moved to a place where I was away from home a lot and my teeth felt dirty after eating. Nothing bad happened to me when I went back to it.

If it is concerning you, you might switch to a sugar-free gum that has more friendly ingredients like Steviadent.

Chewing gum gets the saliva working in your mouth and primes the stomach for the "expected" food to come. This could contribute to always feeling slightly hungry.

You might try chewing/sucking on whole cloves or fennel seeds. It sounds a bit odd, but I know people who enjoy them. Both help with digestion and mask any sulfurous odors. They are also void of aspartame, a serious neurotoxin, and the other questionable ingredients in sugar-free gum. If all else fails, chew on a few parsley or mint leaves. If you must have gum, you could also try Spry gum from a health food store.

I quit chewing gum a while ago. For me it did two things: 1) increase incidence of diarrhea. Sorbitol will do that. 2) increase hunger. While I would often chew gum in an attempt to quell hunger, it turns out it just made me more ravenous upon spitting it out. It also develops a dependence in uses.

I, like anything else would experiment, try going 1-2 weeks without it and see if you notice any changes?

Chewing gum was hard, hard, hard for me to quit. But it has been several years since I have dropped the habit on the advice of my classical homeopath. You see, most gum contains mint which is an antidote to homeopathic remedies (which cured me of a decade long bout with chronic bronchitis, but that is another story).

Also, I lived outside of the States for a quite a few years and now that I am back I notice the American obsession with chewing gum - Americans chew when they are talking to you, at business meetings, in all kings of situations that normal people would deem inappropriate.

When I was a kid, we chewed spruce gum, the dried sap of a spruce. It's pretty good when you get used to it, and it makes your breath smell like a forest.

As Robb Wolf and Cordain say there can be an insulin spike related artificial sweeteners. So regardless of wether or not the latest study report that sweetener as safe or not, there is the potential unwanted insulin response. I really like to be pretty loose with things and not geek out to the point where I have to worry about the odd piece of gum, but lets be honest a pack a day is more than the odd piece. Remove it from the diet for a month see how you look feel and perform.

Xylitol sweetened sugarless gums might be a good fit, they appear to have a good effect on mouth bacteria (starve and kill the bad carb hungry bacteria).

erythritol also displays the same "starve bad bacteria" effect but actually gets absorbed in to your blood stream before being excreted.

A gum with either of the above may help towards you not needing any gum for fresh breath, another thing you could try is "oil pulling" (traditional indian teeth cleansing). Outside of all the new age hippy BS on it all over the internet, it appears to break down oral bacterial biofilms, also was effective vs plaque and gingivitis in the two pubMed studies I can find.

But I do agree that a full pack of gum a day seems mightily excessive, at the least I'd cut back on the amount and drink more water instead...

ASPARTAME is not good at all, but I assume this would be the only source that a paleo eater would get it from, so I don't know if the amount would be harmful. I would recomend everyone to google aspartame. There is a documentary you can find about how harmful it is and how it got approved by the goverment when it shouldn't have. It is banned in some parts of the world.

My problem is I teach BJJ, so I'm literally face to face with people for my job. So, breath freshness is a huge part of my job requirement. When I began teaching, that was just part of the checklist, Clean uniform-check, clean skin-check, No BO-check, gum-check...ready to teach. Now I just feel self conscious without it. I know Paleo peoples probably didn't have, or care about, minty fresh breath. But. I have to. So, is this one of those compromises I just have to accept, or, is there a more "Primal" option.

i was also a chronic gum chewer back when i was in high school-i was a "bad" kid and had "dry mouth" problems. When i started getting into a more healthy lifestyle i just kinda moved away from gum chewing. I while back someone offered me a piece and i accepted and i found the whole experence really bazaar. just chewing and chewing and never swallowing felt so wierd. funny- because sometimes i used to fall asleep with gum in my mouth, wake up, and keep chewing-gross i know.

on whether its paleo or not-probably not. even though you're not swallowing, the ingredients of the gum mix with your saliva and do get ingested. yea it's not that much to really be significant- but i agree with most everyone else in trying to find a more natural option.

I've had spells where I chewed lots of gum - almost continually, but do so no longer. However, I have found that I tend to chew on a toothpick when I get one after a meal. It's probably less socially acceptable than even gum (a bit of redneck stigma I suppose), but chewing wood or bamboo is certainly less toxic than chewing sugar-free gum.

I chew maybe four pieces of gum each day. Sometimes after meals; sometimes when I'm heading to a meeting and want to make sure my breath is acceptable; and sometimes when I'm bored or anxious (situations when I previously would head to the vending machine). I know it's not ideal. I make sure the gum I chew doesn't contain aspartame (cinnamon Trident is a good one, though it does have sugar alcohols).

I tried Glee gum recently, which is touted for its real ingredients (real gum base, sugar and flavorings). It was interesting, and the sugar content is minimal for a few pieces, but I just didn't care for it. After a few minutes, it was too hard to chew.

I found that quitting chewing gum the best thing for helping me gain control of my sugar addiction. It wasn't easy,but is has made a huge difference on how I feel etc. I don't miss it one bit now.

I agree with the others who have noted that a pack a day is probably a bit t-o-o much, but I occasionally chew gum and don't really see a problem with it. I sometimes have a bit of tension in my jaw and mouth and the chewing helps relax the muscles somewhat - as long as you find a gum that doesn't get tougher as you chew like a lot of them - and I occasionally suffer from dry mouth for which I figure the gum is better than sucking on a piece of pure sugar hard candy.

And FWIW I tryed Spry and thought it was REALLY nasty . I did find something called Glee Gum at the local health food store that is made the old-fashioned with real chicle and is pretty good for occasional use (it has sugar and rice syrup so it isn't sugar-free, BUT you aren't chewing plastic either!).

I was a chain chewer of chewing gum in my college times,i use to have a bunch of wrigleys chewing strips with me always,,,but now after lefting college,,,i dont how i left that,,,,

Ugg,how could you put all those chemicals in your body? Also chewing tells the stomach to get ready to receive food by secreting acid. I wonder what years of this would do to the stomach lining? I think your satiety problem is definitely related.

Returning to the glee gum mentioned earlier; I dont care for the regular gum, to sweet; but one alternative is to purchase just the chicle gum base from their site. (Which can be done if you drop them a mail.) I carry a little container with these babys wherever I go, and really enjoy chewing some gum after a meal, and find that I experience some benefits on my digestion & satiety.

Just one route to go if you just want to chew gum without any flavour/sweeteners whatsoever.

Don't touch the stuff, personally. I can't pronounce a number of those ingredients.

All you have to do is go to the Glee Gum website and order one of their refill kits (they sell gum making kits). The refill kit contains 4oz of plain chicle for $6.00! I think it said that it could make about 50 pieces. I think that is pretty awesome. Might have to buy some for myself. :D Hope that helps.

I chew over 2 packs a day. I want to quit, as I endure heavy stomach pain. This interrups my social life and my success at work. However, after 8 years I am addicted. Does anybody have any tips for quiting? It is something I want to do, but I have found it very hard to. Thank you for your input.

I have an all or nothing relationship with gum : either I start chewing and end up going through the whole pack (lord have mercy on my if they're Take 5 green apple) in a day or I say no. Nowadays I carry floss and travel size toothbrush with me (lol), it's pretty nice after having a tuna & egg salad.