The importance of chewing.

The importance of chewing.

For those over 30, you remember Mickael Jordan and his eternal chewing gum. For the youngest, you have certainly already seen Kylian Mbappé also chewing gum (we are also thinking at Stimium of offering chewing gum with active ingredients focused on short/medium term energy and concentration, don't Don’t hesitate to tell us what you think!).

You have certainly noticed that our Stimium Pro Nrj and Stimium Boost erasers are no longer exactly “like before”! Our old formulas of Stimium Boost Gums and Stimium Pro NRJ Gums were based on animal gelatin, they tended to melt in the mouth, precisely because of the gelatin base. After discussion with our scientific committee, we chose pectin for our new gums, because:

• this ingredient comes from the skin of fruits/vegetables, and not from an animal base (gelatin is often of bovine or porcine origin, and traceability is not always optimal…)
• a pectin base allows better preservation of the ingredients over time, allowing all of the chosen ingredients to be preserved in the best possible conditions.
• a pectin base will melt less in the mouth, and will require chewing.

Without thinking, we might have a natural tendency to say that chewing makes us lose energy.

In reality, this would be a bad calculation, particularly because before or during your exercise, you will have possibly already taken a bar, a gel, a drink or gum and everything that has been ingested must by definition be digested! This is why you must take care of your chewing to better digest, and to allow food to stay in the stomach for as short a time as possible in order to promote better assimilation of macro and micronutrients and therefore a reduction in the occurrence of digestive problems. Once the first stage of the stomach has passed, the role of the small intestine will be to facilitate the absorption of nutrients while continuing to break down food.

Remember your biology lessons! Remember, without wanting to do Michel Cymes, the stomach has three main functions in terms of digestion:

• store food
• break it down into a liquid
• empty it into the small intestine

The process is common to all ingredients – enzymes present in saliva begin the digestion process, so chewing the food adequately stimulates the digestive process. One of these enzymes is called salivary amylase. It is found in saliva and begins to break down foods, especially carbohydrates (CHO), making them easier and smoother to swallow. This helps increase the speed at which food is digested. By chewing, we release even more salivary amylase, therefore allowing easier decomposition of food.

If eating is therefore a necessity before and during exercise, chewing is fundamental to avoid the most common problem during sports practice, namely gastric problems (of a very different nature but including in particular bloating, heartburn, reflux, diarrhea, nausea, cramps, headaches, gas, etc.). Chewing is therefore essential for good health, both when you consume our gums, and when you are at the table to eat your meal, it is one of the fundamental rules of a healthy lifestyle, take your time, chew and not swallow too quickly, at the risk of eating poorly, eating too much, and not benefiting from all the benefits of the products ingested.

But digestion is actually a global stage, and is not just the prerogative of the stomach alone. If we take the time to chew well, we give the brain enough time to analyze what we swallow and it can inform the digestive tract. A Japanese study from Tokyo Dental University dating from 2016 demonstrated that chewing helped reduce reaction time. This scientific data is therefore of capital importance for sprinters or fencers for example, but not only since lucidity is one of the fundamental qualities in sporting success. Macher would also reduce stress and improve concentration. To be more precise, these actions are rather the result of chewing which activates and/or inhibits certain functions of our brain. By chewing, blood flow to the brain increases, allowing more oxygen to be transported.

Whether it's our Stimium Boost or Pro NRJ Gums, or any other food in your diet, or during the refueling stages of your races, don't be impatient by swallowing everything as quickly as possible, take the time to chew, to chew the bar, the banana or your dried fruit, you will considerably reduce the risk of digestive disorders and gastric disorders, and you will improve your ability to concentrate. Smart macher! What's more, chewing allows you to better assimilate food and achieve a faster satiety effect, ultimately allowing you to eat less, and therefore lose weight. The role of chewing is therefore much more important than it seems!