Chewing different materials affects the brain and a new study found that chewing on wood (wooden tongue depressors), compared to chewing gum, led to a significant increase in a natural brain antioxidant called glutathione, and better performance on memory tasks.

[u/mvea]

https://www.psypost.org/chewing-wood-may-boost-memory-and-brain-antioxidants-study-finds/

[u/mvea]

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/systems-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2024.1489919/full

From the linked article:

Chewing on moderately hard foods, like wood, might do more than just break down your lunch; new research suggests it could actually boost brainpower by increasing levels of a natural antioxidant, which in turn may improve memory. A recent study published in Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience explored how chewing different materials affects the brain and found that chewing on wood, compared to chewing gum, led to a significant increase in a brain antioxidant called glutathione.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found some interesting results. First, they looked at the glutathione levels in the anterior cingulate cortex before and after chewing. In the group that chewed wood, they observed a significant increase in glutathione levels after chewing compared to before. This means that chewing wood seemed to boost the amount of this important antioxidant in that brain region.

However, in the gum-chewing group, there was no significant change in glutathione levels after chewing. While there wasn’t a statistically significant difference in the change in glutathione levels between the gum and wood groups directly, the trend was clearly towards a greater increase in the wood-chewing group.

Next, the researchers examined the relationship between changes in glutathione levels and performance on the cognitive tests. They found that in the wood-chewing group, the increase in glutathione levels was positively related to scores on immediate memory and story memory tests. This means that participants who showed a larger increase in glutathione after chewing wood also tended to perform better on memory tasks.

Interestingly, this relationship was not found in the gum-chewing group. There was no link between changes in glutathione and memory performance for those who chewed gum. In essence, chewing wood seemed to both increase brain antioxidant levels and improve certain aspects of memory, and these two changes appeared to be connected.

[u/mycofirsttime → u/[deleted]]

My pencils and pens were absolutely WRECKED growing up. My nails. Straws. Lollipop sticks. All wrecked.

Not sure what changed once i hit my mid-20s, I don’t chew like that nearly as much. Interesting that it has a positive effect on the brain rather than just being an impulse problem.

[u/[deleted] → u/mycofirsttime]

I used to chew my wooden pencils in school too. I didn’t realize I was helping myself get better grades.

[u/Lexinoz → u/[deleted]]

It's a self stimming/calming method that many do. You were just acting on instinct.
The worse part is when grown ups don't know the logic behind this and force you to stop, worsening your grades and setting you on a downward spiral of school work.

[u/[deleted] → u/Lexinoz]

Yeah my teachers always stopped me from doing that or doodling too, which apparently also helps with learning too.

[u/privacyplease27 → u/[deleted]]

I believe doodling can also help with concentration.

[u/JonatasA → u/[deleted]]

I was forced to write in cursive. Curse that.

 

No wonder my hand writing was so bad.

 

It got better after I left school. The irony.

[u/eddgreat9 → u/Lexinoz]

Also, stimming is in response to the wiring of ADHD brains which lack the proper balance of the hormone dopamine. Dopamine is needed to focus, perform routine tasks, emotion regulation. Stimming (and chewing as it can be a form of stimming for some) is essentially the brains process of attempting to properly produce the correct dopamine balance in your brain to focus on that thought or task your doing.

[u/MutantCreature → u/Lexinoz]

I mean it's still not a good idea to chew on stuff that isn't intended to be chewed on. Ingesting paint, plastic, and damaging your teeth on hard materials (ie metal clips or eraser holders) is not good, if anything maybe offering a safer alternative would be a better response than stopping it entirely but that could be hard to implement.