Gum And food

[Yoshi]

An age old argument between me and a few of my friends, so I thought I'd bring it up onto the internet for more exposure to the world at large.

Is gum food?

To that I say nay. Gum is for entertainment, not consumption.

Do you have a different opinion? Why do you believe it? You're free to disagree, but you'd be wrong.

[Rackinac]

Yes it is food. No, you will not die if you swallow it, according to my mom you will. I swallow gum all the time, and look at me now. And I find it a food, not a dinner food but food. Mints are food too. And tums. :<

And I do not find it fun chewing gum. I find it yummy.

[red.yoshi]

Not to bring this into technical terms or anything, but gum actually is considered food, or "any nourishing substance that is eaten, drunk, or otherwise taken into the body to sustain life, provide energy, promote growth, etc." Another argument could arise which questions: "could gum provide the right nourishment vital to life and growth;" in which case, I would respond "no."

Gum just takes longer to process throughout your system than other foods do. D=

[Yoshiko]

Gum isn't food.

End of story.

[anjilfan]

Well...you don't eat it...so...

[Not-Garr]

Gum =/= Food

[teh yoshi]

I want proof for these claims.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food
Definition of food:

Food is any substance, usually composed primarily of carbohydrates, fats, water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal or human being for nutrition or pleasure.

Some countries list a legal definition of food. These countries list food as any item that is to be processed, partially processed or unprocessed for consumption. The listing of items included as foodstuffs include any substance, intended to be, or reasonably expected to be, ingested by humans. In addition to these foodstuffs drink, chewing gum, water or other items processed into said food items are part of the legal definition of food.

Now that we know that food can be consumed for pleasure and/or nutrition, gum provides just that. For example:
www.victoryseeds.com/candystore/gum_black_jack.html

Early chewing gums were marketed partly as palliatives, using ingredients and flavors that people accepted as folk remedies: licorice to soothe the throat; clove for toothache; spearmint to settle the stomach and relieve bad breath.

www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2039

Chewing gum has also been identified with improved memory. UK psychologists found that people who chewed throughout tests of both long-term and short-term memory produced significantly better scores than people who did not. .... Subjects who chewed gum scored 25% higher than the control group on immediate word recall tests, and 36% higher on delayed word recall tests. Scientists point to three, non-mutually exclusive reasons, the simplest of which attributes the higher scores to the gum-chewers' increased heart rate (and, by extension, increased blood flow to the brain).

In conclusion, I'm convinced that gum can be considered food, albeit a confectionery (eating for pleasure, not to satiate hunger). On gum labels they still post nutritional value, and that we do consume little bits of the chewing gum.

And if gum is not food, what else would it be? A drug: "Any article, other than food, intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or other animals"?

[Yoshiko]

Okay, you know what, changed vote. :|

Gum is food! :D

Note: on packages of gum, you will see printed in small text; "Not a low calorie food".

TAKE THAT OBI-WAN FOODOBI.

[emvee]

I don't consider it food. To me, food is anything that is digested for nourishment. Gum does nothing like that, and if it does, the changes are too small to notice, and to consider gum a food.

[Twi]

I wouldn't consider gum as food, although it may be officially so. If I was hungry and walked into a shop the last thing I would buy would be gum, it does nothing to help and is frankly tedious to chew.

[Brute]

Gum is a candy
Candy is a food
---------------------
.'. Gum is a food.

[Masakuni]

Yeah gum is considered food. It's basically edible and has a good taste, so I pretty much consider it a food.

In my opinion, gum is not food. Proof? How about that person who went to the hospital to have a giant ball of gum which had built up over years and years of swallowing it from their stomach? I don't remember if the person was male or female, but I do remember that seeing it on TV. I never swallowed gum again. XD

[Chilaquiles]

Just eat gum for a couple weeks then check to see how you feel.

[teh yoshi]

I want concrete details and commentary! Five paragraph essay due tomorrow!

[Zippy]

I just don’t consider candy food at all. It’s not something that I would want to live off of for the rest of my life. As for gum, nope, I don’t say that it’s food. I don’t ever chew gum anyways, so I can’t say it matters, but it is an interesting question with all the evidence being tossed about. XD

[Twi]

Although gum may not be food, it can enhance your breasts.

I'm not even kidding, just ask the BBC!

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4361563.stm

[Rackinac]

twilightyoshi said:

Although gum may not be food, it can enhance your breasts.

I'm not even kidding, just ask the BBC!

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4361563.stm

... by 80%?

Whoa.