Stressed out? Get chewing: can a wellness rebrand make Americans buy gum again?

When was the last time you saw someone chewing gum? 1998, maybe? 2007? Chances are, it probably wasn’t recently. Like high heels and affordable housing, chewing gum appears to be going 【小题1】

Gum’s popularity has been fading globally thanks to increased competition from products like breath mints and mobile phones distracting us from impulse purchases while shopping. The pandemic, moreover, 【小题2】·accelerated gum’s decline.

Even after people 【小题3】 from lockdown, sales didn’t recover. Gum sales worldwide in 2023 were 10% below 2018 figures. In the US, the drop has been particularly pronounced: last year 1.2 billion units of gum were sold in the US, 32% fewer than in 2018.

However, chewing gum, in various forms, is one of the oldest habits there is. Stone age teenagers were chewing birch bar k tar possibly for pleasure, medicinal purposes, or to use it as a glue. Gum has also been loaded with cultural meaning and the subject of various 【小题4】 panics. Some people believe it is a marker of the bad kids or a habit of the lower class.

Despite a certain amount of social stigma（污名） attached to gum, it has - until relatively recently -been a wildly successful product. That’s thanks to William Wrigley Jr, who was a marketing and advertising genius. Wrigley always 【小题5】 to find a way to make gum relevant and insert it into consumer culture. For example, Wrigley advertised the idea that chewing gum was a health aid that would help digestion and would relieve stress.

This year the Wrigley brand’s owner —Mars— came out with an ad campaign it hopes will revive gum’s 【小题6】 by positioning it as an almost instant stress reliever. Linking gum with wellness worked in the 1910s, but is it going to work now? Alex Hayes at the food consultancy is 【小题7】 optimistic. “The global well ness market is estimated to be worth more than $1.5 trillion, so it’s no surprise that Mars wants a piece of the pie,” Hayes says. “We’ve seen the success of categories such as tea promoting their products via functional 【小题8】   and messaging-teas for good sleep, mental clarity, stress relief, etc. So it comes as no surprise that Mars is risking the same 【小题9】 .” But he also notes, customers are increasingly worried about processed foods and are eager to move away from artificial 【小题10】. There’s still ongoing discussion on just how effective repositioning chewable plastic as a health supplement is going to be.

Bad News For Astronaut Skeletons

Astronauts whose bones are weakened by spaceflight may not recover even after returning to Earth, according to a new study. This raises questions about how humans will cope on long space missions.

The 【小题1】 conditions in space mean that astronauts’ bodies are not 【小题2】 exercising in the same way as they are on Earth. Muscles get weaker but bones are also 【小题3】 because the body does not replace minerals that are 【小题4】.

Since 2015, doctors at the University of Calgary in Canada have been studying the problem by comparing 【小题5】 of astronaut tibias (shinbones) made before flight, 【小题6】 after return to Earth, and after six and 12 months of recovery time. Their 【小题7】 show that a year after returning to Earth, bones still have up to 2.1% lower mineral density (a measure of their strength) than before the flight.

Dr Leigh Gabel, who led the team, explained that the effects of a few months in space were equal to several 【小题8】 of ageing on Earth. Damage to the bone itself that occurs in space can’t be 【小题9】, says Gabel, so “the astronaut’s overall bone structure permanently changes”.

The study found that the longer the space mission, the greater and more 【小题10】 the bone loss. This supports a 2020 study that predicted that during a three-year mission to Mars, one in three astronauts would be at risk of osteoporosis (fragile bones). Gabel says space agencies will need to improve the exercise and nutrition they offer astronauts if they are to go on such long trips.

Exercise Can Help Prevent Depression, Study Finds

How often do you exercise? A new 【小题1】 from researchers at the University of Cambridge shows that those who exercise are less likely to develop depression, even if they exercise less than the recommended amount.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends that adults engage in 2.5 to 5 hours of moderate activity per week or one hour and 15 minutes to 2.5 hours of 【小题2】 aerobic (有氧的) exercise per week or some combination of the two.

Adults who took a walk for what 【小题3】 to 2.5 hours per week were less likely to develop depression than those who didn’t exercise at all, the study found. But even those who exercised less felt better than those who didn’t exercise at all, according to researchers. “In this study, a relatively small amount of physical activity were associated with a(n) 【小题4】 decrease in risks of depression,” the study says. The researchers analyzed 15 studies with nearly 200,000 participants. Those who did about half the recommended amount of physical activity per week had an 18% lower risk of depression 【小题5】 with adults who did not exercise, the study says. Participants who exercised the recommended amount had a 25% lower risk of depression than those who did not. Exercising more than the recommended amount hardly 【小题6】 depression risk, according to researchers.

Many 【小题7】 of exercise can lead to improved mental health. For example, working out can increase circulation (血液循环) to the brain and 【小题8】 the central nervous system, leading to what many refer to as a “runners high,” the study says. More exercise can also lead to improved physical health and a better body 【小题9】, which can cause a person to be more social, researchers say.

Nearly 5% of adults in the U.S. report regular feelings of depression, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among the study participants, researchers estimate that 1 in every 9 cases of depression might have been prevented had everyone met recommended exercise 【小题10】, the study says.