I’d never have thought rubber or petroleum would be in a food.
Well in the case of chewing gum, it basically IS plastic.
I find that terrifying.
Most commercial gums use a “synthetic gum base.” It has been made with latex, chickle, all manner of crap.
Isn’t natural plant gum latex too?
I think it is more accurate to say latex is a natural plant gum.
Because… they’re made of microplastics?
… Must be a coincidence.
I’m ignorant. Have micro plastics been proven to be harmful?
At the very least, significantly more microplastics were found in corpses of people who had dementia and the volume has increased between 2016 and 2024.
Correlation vs causation will require more research but it surely can’t be harmful begin to reduce exposure where we can as we didn’t have microplastics resident in our body for most of human history. I’d hazard an educated guess that accumulating any inorganic material inside your body isn’t good for you.
There are hints about them having carcinogen properties and promoting cerebral disorders (they do cross the blood-brain-barrier). But since human health is complex, not much evidence yet.
Yess, as they accumulate in the body at least.
How is that proof that they’re harmful?
That’s not evidence of anything though.
But which gum? I’m chewing gum right now and would prefer diet plastic gum if possible.
Almost all modern gum base is made from rubber/plastic. If you want plastic free gum you’ll likely have to switch to one that specifically advertised as such. Most people talk about Simply Gum; I’ve never tried it personally and don’t know much about the company
“Surprisingly, the natural based gums gave off the same amount of microplastics” so I’m not sure it’s worth switching from the one you like. The better way to reduce your intake is not to start a new piece, instead keep chewing the old one that’s releasing fewer and fewer particles. The best choice would be to stop chewing gum, but it helps me eat less, also there’s apparently microplastics in foods too, and in everything else including our eyeballs.
Do you have any shabiri grapes?
How do gum bases not made of plastic give off plastic? Chicle and other natural gum bases come from plants.
Your question made me wonder - what if the plants had micro plastics lol.
I don’t know, I just quoted the study.
My theory as a non-scientist would be that the plastics aren’t from the gum at all, but the gums and tongue which are apparently already full of them, according to random things on the Internet.
But that just shows how stupid it is to ask me
Crazy how different people react differently to things, I don’t chew gum often but I did try it again when I started controlling my diet and for me it just seems to activate my hunger, like my brain thinks “I’m chewing something, time to prepare the stomach for receiving food!”.
I understand that. In this case of course I have just eaten dinner which probably subverts that.
What about toothbrushes?
I just pulled this out from my ass, but I would guess yes, they do. But you rinse your mouth after brushing your teeth so I would guess it’s not that bad? Since you’re (mostly) not ingesting the microplastic particles from the toothbrush. But again I’m going off of nothing.
Current advice is actually to not rinse after brushing, as you’re meant to let the fluoride of the toothpaste sit against your teeth for thirty minutes.
Unfortunately, I would recommend not losing sleep over either source of microplastics (chewing gum or toothbrushes), until tires and synthetic clothing are done away with by society. Those are much MUCH bigger, inescapable sources of microplastics
Isn’t it mostly tires? Which is just another reason humanity has to be cured of this insane car-craziness.
Tires are there biggest ones, yeah, but number two is shedding from synthetic clothing creation and laundering
I think micro plastics are in all the water everywhere.
We’re talking about their major sources, not where they’re now consequently found
yea i heard that trick too, unfortunately it can cause perioral dermatitis in people, especially some toothpastes. because it tends to seep out of your lips and sits in the corner irritating the lips.
Instructions unclear, pulled toothbrush out of ass.
Are you a sea cucumber?
you have to worry how abrasive some are.
If this interests you, consider the book Ultra Processed People.
That’s why I go to the source and chew plastics.
good thing i stopped using chewing gum ages ago, always chewed it way too long and it turned disgusting.
Yummy, I love eating micro plastics…😋
