Simply Gum : the 100% natural chewing gum

Regular chewing gum is packed with artificial - and potentially toxic - substances, including aspartame, BHT, and the same components of rubber tires, plastic bottles, and white glue. Consumers are kept in the dark about what they are chewing because the FDA allows up to 80 synthetic ingredients to be hidden in the catch-all term “gum base.” According to the producers : “We couldn’t find a single gum brand in the US that shares their entire ingredient list with consumers. We also couldn't find a single brand that was truly 100% natural”.

Conceived by a team of entrepreneurs including Caron Proschan (a natural product devotee) Simply Gum is made (in New York) from just six ingredients—all of which are listed on the package. Neither artificial flavoring, preservatives, aspartame nor other synthetics are added, and this 100% natural gum is made of chicle (which is an ingredient obtained from the sap of the tropical sapodilla fruit tree), organic dried cane juice, organic vegetable glycerin, organic rice flour, organic sunflower lecithin and all-natural cinnamon flavor. For now, cinnamon is the only available flavor, but there are plans to introduce mint in the near future. The gum is soft and pleasant to chew, and the most striking difference is the flavor—it's significantly different from the gums we are accustomed to. It's less saccharine and overall more subtle, though the flavor still lasts. [1]

Now aside from aggressive marketing, there are other all-natural chewing gums out there. One example is Glee Gum. Made again with chicle, the natural tree sap harvested sustainably from the rainforests of Central America. Once all chewing gum was made with chicle, but today most gum is made entirely from synthetic stuff. Glee Gum uses chicle because it is an eco-friendly way to help conserve the rainforest, giving trees more value standing than chopped down for lumber. Plus, Glee comes packaged in biodegradable, recycled cardboard and resealable, recyclable pouches. Classic Glee is sweetened with Fair Trade cane sugar and brown rice syrup. Sugar-Free Glee is sweetened with 100% xylitol from American birch and beech trees for added dental benefits. Furthermore, Glee not only offers chicle-based tangerine, cinnamon and peppermint gum, they also offer a do-it-yourself kit. Part science lesson and part eco-chic custom experience, these kits also reinforce the virtuous values of sustainability and natural over artificial.

There is also PepperSmith’s, that again uses no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives, no aspartame and no petro-chemical bases. The very zesty Sicilian lemon & fine English peppermint gum is one of my favorites. Made with the finest Sicilian lemons from the Femminello and Monachello varieties that are picked from the superior winter crop. They also have a touch of our distinctive fine English peppermint, farmed in Hampshire, giving them a nice cooling freshness. Check out their ingredients info pages, available here.

[1] Ref. http://www.coolhunting.com/food-drink/simply-gum.php

Further reading :

http://www.examiner.com/article/most-chewing-gum-is-chewing-poison-here-s-a-better-alternative