r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Mar 03 '25

Neuroscience 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.

https://www.psypost.org/chewing-wood-may-boost-memory-and-brain-antioxidants-study-finds/
15.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

567 comments sorted by

View all comments

52

u/cheetonian Mar 03 '25

I’m gagging just thinking about it…

12

u/_perl_ Mar 03 '25

My god, finally someone mentioned the most blatantly and overwhelming horrible thing about this entire idea. I can't even handle *touching* those things, much less chewing on them! Unless I'm very desperate, even ice cream on a stick is intolerable. I'd rather do this experiment with a huge clod of dirt than any of those intolerable wooden things.