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To the Editor: Indirect evidence suggests that gum chewing may have greater metabolic effects than has been appreciated. The thermic effect of food is reduced when nutrition bypasses the mouth.1 In cows, chewing increases energy expenditure by approximately 20 percent.2,3 We measured how energy expenditure changes with gum chewing in humans.
Energy expenditure was measured in a temperature-controlled, darkened, silent laboratory with an indirect calorimeter (model 229, SensorMedics, Yorba Linda, Calif.) that was calibrated before each measurement with two primary-standard gases (a combination of 4 percent carbon dioxide and 16 percent oxygen and a combination of 26 percent oxygen and . . .
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The New England Journal of Medicine released this info a few years back about how chewing gum drastically boosts your metabolic rate. According to their info, you could lose eleven pounds a year just from chewing gum. I have two problems with this:
According to their math, in order to lose the eleven pounds, you’d have to chew 24/7. Secondly, chewing causes your pancreas to go into overdrive in producing digestive enzymes. In someone with no gallbladder, like me for example, this is a bad thing.
When I don’t eat or drink a bunch of water immediately after feeling the pangs of hunger then I feel like I’m having a gallstone attack, my Doc told me this is because my stomach is essentially trying to digest itself. A bad thing.
In addition, over producing pancreas enzymes can lead to acid reflux and other stomach maladies. Gum isn’t good to chew either, the sugar in it can be hard on your teeth and the sugar substitutes it contains as “healthy” sugar alternatives (splenda, aspartame) can wreck your endocrine system.
All in all, I’d say leave well enough alone and stick to only chewing your food, or if you’re gossipy, someone’s ear. 
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