Chewing
gum leads to diarrhea and excessive water loss
Headlines
of this story mention gum chewing leads to excessive "weight
loss", which of course gets some thinking about fat loss
and interpreting that they can chew gum to lose fat. A short
story published in the British Medical Journal on January
12, 2007 describes how two patients with unexplainable diarrhea
(visiting the throne 10X per day or more) and rapid weight
loss finally had their problem resolved when doctors questioned
them about their eating habits. The two patients, one male
and one female, had been chewing between 10 and 20 sticks
of chewing gum per day.
The
gum was sweetened with sorbitol, which is known to have laxative
effects. Once the gum chewing was stopped, the diarrhea ended
and the two regained around 10 - 15 pounds.
Laxatives
for weight loss isn't new to those obsessed with weight loss,
but still this story made it's rounds in the weight loss crowd
pretty quickly.
There
is no magical fat loss side effect of foods sweetened with
sorbitol, in fact the side effects are pretty crappy. Excessive
dehydration resulting from diarrhea may also lead to calcium
and sodium loss which may cause heart rhythm problems.
There
is typically around 1.2g of sorbitol in a stick of chewing
gum. A laxative effect can occur with as little as 10g per
day of sorbitol.
Two
things will result from this recent news story:
The
sales of chewing gum and toilet paper will increase.
©
2007 Cris LaBossiere Rhino Fitness
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