Health
Study reveals why chewing gum might actually help with focus and stress relief
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Humans have been chewing gum for thousands of years, long after the flavor fades and without any clear nutritional benefit.
The habit dates back at least 8,000 years to Scandinavia, where people chewed birchbark pitch to soften it into a glue for tools. Other ancient cultures, including the Greeks, Native Americans and the Maya, also chewed tree resins for pleasure or soothing effects, National Geographic recently reported.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, William Wrigley Jr. transformed chewing gum from a novelty into a mass consumer habit through relentless and innovative marketing. His brands, including Juicy Fruit and Spearmint, promoted gum as a way to calm nerves, curb hunger and stay focused.
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“Are you worried? Chew gum,” an article from 1916 said, according to Kerry Segrave’s book, “Chewing Gum in America, 1850-1920: The Rise of an Industry.” “Do you lie awake at night? Chew gum,” it continued. “Are you depressed? Is the world against you? Chew gum.”
Advertisements have long framed chewing gum as a tool for stress relief and mental sharpness. (Keystone View Company/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
In the 1940s, a study found chewing resulted in lower tension but couldn’t say why.
“The gum-chewer relaxes and gets more work done,” The New York Times wrote at the time about the study’s results.
Gum became an early form of wellness, and companies are trying to revive that idea today as gum sales decline, according to National Geographic.
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But only now are scientists finally beginning to understand the biology behind those long-standing beliefs.
Chewing gum may briefly affect attention and stress-related brain activity, according to studies. (iStock)
A 2025 review by researchers at the University of Szczecin in Poland analyzed more than three decades of brain-imaging studies to examine what happens inside the brain when people chew gum. Using MRI, EEG and near-infrared spectroscopy research, the authors found that chewing alters brain activity in regions tied to movement, attention and stress regulation.
The findings help clarify why the seemingly pointless task can feel calming or focusing, even once the flavor has faded.
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Chewing gum activated not only the brain’s motor and sensory networks involved in chewing, but also higher-order regions linked to attention, alertness and emotional control, the review found. EEG studies found brief shifts in brain-wave patterns linked to heightened alertness and what researchers call “relaxed concentration.”
Humans have chewed gum for pleasure for thousands of years, according to reports. (iStock)
“If you’re doing a fairly boring task for a long time, chewing seems to be able to help with concentration,” Crystal Haskell-Ramsay, a professor of biological psychology at Northumbria University, told National Geographic.
The review also supports earlier findings that gum chewing can ease stress, but only in certain situations. In laboratory experiments, people who chewed gum during mildly stressful tasks such as public speaking or mental math often reported lower anxiety levels than those who didn’t.
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Chewing gum did not, however, consistently reduce anxiety in high-stress medical situations, such as immediately before surgery, and it offered no clear benefit when participants faced unsolvable problems designed to induce frustration.
Some studies suggest chewing gum can reduce stress in mild situations but not extreme ones. (iStock)
Across multiple studies, people who chewed gum did not remember lists of words or stories better than those who didn’t, the researchers also found, and any boost in attention faded soon after chewing stopped.
Gum may simply feed the desire to fidget, experts suspect.
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“Although these effects are often short-lived, the range of outcomes … underscores chewing gum’s capacity to modulate brain function beyond simple oral motor control,” the researchers wrote.
“However, at this time, the neural changes associated with gum chewing cannot be directly linked to the positive behavioral and functional outcomes observed in studies,” they added.
A 2025 review analyzed decades of MRI, EEG and near-infrared spectroscopy studies on gum chewing. (iStock)
Future research should address longer-term impacts, isolate flavor or stress variables and explore potential therapeutic applications, the scientists said.
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The findings also come with caveats beyond brain science. Although sugar-free gum may help reduce cavities, Fox News Digital has previously reported that dentists warn acids, sweeteners and excessive chewing may harm teeth or trigger other side effects.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the study’s authors for comment.
Health
Cruise ship linked to deadly Hantavirus outbreak arrives off Tenerife as passenger evacuation begins
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The cruise ship linked to a deadly Hantavirus outbreak arrived early Sunday off the Spanish island of Tenerife, where passengers began to evacuate and fly to their home countries.
Passengers are being tested by Spanish health authorities to ensure they are asymptomatic before being transported ashore in small boats, Spanish officials said, according to Reuters.
Spanish health authorities confirmed that the first plane carrying the Spanish passengers has departed for a military hospital in Madrid, where they will be under quarantine.
The 17 Americans aboard the MV Hondius will be flown to a medical center in Nebraska after health officials allow them to disembark.
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The cruise ship MV Hondius arrives at the port of Granadilla de Abona after being affected by a Hantavirus outbreak, in Tenerife, Spain, May 10, 2026. (REUTERS/Hannah McKay)
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official told ABC News on Saturday morning that federal officials currently do not plan to mandate quarantine when the American passengers arrive in Nebraska.
They will instead be screened upon arrival in the U.S. and either stay briefly at Nebraska’s National Quarantine Unit or return home to monitor for symptoms for 42 days while staying in contact with local health authorities, the official said.
The ship set course for Spain on Wednesday from the coast of Cape Verde after the WHO and European Union requested assistance in managing the outbreak.
The ship’s arrival comes hours after World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arrived on the island.
The WHO said Friday that eight people aboard the ship had fallen ill, including three who died. Six cases have been confirmed, with two others suspected.
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A cruise ship linked to a Hantavirus outbreak anchored near the Spanish island of Tenerife ahead of a planned evacuation. (REUTERS/Hannah McKay)
In a statement Saturday, Ghebreyesus said the public health risk remains low.
“I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word ‘outbreak’ and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest,” he said.
“The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID-19. The current public health risk from Hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” he continued.
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A police boat operates next to the cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla de Abona after being affected by a hantavirus outbreak, in Tenerife, Spain, May 10, 2026. (REUTERS/Hannah McKay)
Ghebreyesus noted that the virus identified aboard the ship is the Andes strain of hantavirus, which can be severe.
“Three people have lost their lives, and our hearts go out to their families,” he wrote, reiterating that the public health risk posed by the virus remained low.
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An ambulance evacuates patients from the MV Hondius cruise ship to the airport in Praia, Cape Verde, on May 6, 2026. (Misper Apawu/AP)
About 30 crew members are expected to remain on board as the vessel continues to the Netherlands, where it will be disinfected.
Fox News Digital’s Robert McGreevy, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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FIRST ON FOX: Eating healthy doesn’t have to be complicated, according to celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, the restaurateur and owner of New York City’s new Bar Rocco – whose philosophy and cookbooks are rooted in health-conscious dieting – shared a few misconceptions about healthy eating, especially when the end goal is weight loss.
“There is no one fix, there’s no one cure for everyone,” he said. “Everyone has different needs and their weight-loss journey is going to be different. So, you really have to figure out what your problem is.”
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This could be a body composition imbalance, a lack of exercise or a generally poor diet, DiSpirito mentioned. “Figure out what will help you address those issues most quickly,” he advised.
Rocco DiSpirito recently opened Bar Rocco in New York City. The Rockefeller Center location offers breakfast, lunch and dinner. (Eric Medsker)
“Even if you’re working out, unless you’re LeBron James and burning 8,000 calories a game, there’s no way to out-train a bad diet, so at some point in our lives, we have to come to a reckoning with what we consume.”
DiSpirito says it’s “always a good idea” to start with the basics, including consuming less sugar, less alcohol, fewer processed foods and fewer processed carbs, as well as eating more protein.
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The chef revealed that the No. 1 issue he’s witnessed is that people have “no idea how many calories they’re consuming.”
“We’re all consuming two to three times more than we realize,” he noted. “And even when we count and use the apps, there’s a lot of fuzzy math going on.”
“So, getting a handle on how much you’re consuming, even the little picking that you do while you’re cooking and cleaning, all that counts and adds up quickly.”
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As the healthy eating movement gains traction, DiSpirito called it “very important” for most of the U.S., as the country faces an “obesity issue.”
“Restaurants are definitely thinking about it as well,” he said. “[But] I wouldn’t say restaurants are making it their [top] priority.”
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“We still have a lot of work to do just getting people in and seated and fed and their checks to them when they want. But there are some restaurants that are focused on it.”
As the healthy eating movement gains traction, DiSpirito called it “very important” for most of the U.S., as the country faces an “obesity issue.” (iStock)
Privately, DiSpirito said he has focused on providing healthy meal plans for clients.
“But for restaurants to approach healthy eating is a little difficult, because it’s a whole different kind of cooking and a [different] kind of energy,” he said.
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“Healthy eating isn’t fun – so to bring that into a fun atmosphere is kind of difficult. It’s difficult to mix the two.”
This crossroads between indulgence and health may be a tricky mix, especially among the food supply in America, DiSpirito acknowledged – but the two align more easily in other countries where the food is not tampered with, he added.
Celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito says other countries, like Italy, “don’t allow a lot of messing around with food that we allow in the United States.” (Jonathan Pushnik)
“If you go to Italy, for example, and just eat everything they eat, it feels indulgent … and it’s also very healthy,” he said. “And the key is the food supply is still natural. It’s still organic.”
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“There aren’t lots of sprayed food [or] sprayed vegetables in Italy,” DiSpirito went on. “They don’t allow a lot of messing around with food that we allow in the United States, the GMO-ing, the modifying.”
“So healthy and indulgent are not mutually exclusive, but in [our] food supply system … it’s very difficult.”
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