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/
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u/Tanukifan Mar 03 '25

Their conclusion was:

Chewing moderately hard material elevates brain antioxidant levels such as GSH, potentially influencing cognitive function.

So its not specifically wood that gives the effect, even if they tested it with wood.

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u/eliminating_coasts Mar 03 '25

If only they'd tested carrots, we could have much less strange immediate recommendations.

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u/roamingandy Mar 03 '25

Not sure they'd work as you're eating carrots rather than chewing on them for a prolonged time like wood or gum.

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u/eliminating_coasts Mar 03 '25

I think if chewing is the thing that causes the effect, there's not much harm in eating a vast quantity of uncooked and peeled but unchopped carrots - they're not particularly energy dense, high in fibre and vitamins etc. so you probably could just keep munching carrots like a horse for hours without having a significant negative effect.

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u/TheArmoredKitten Mar 03 '25

Total anecdote, but my dog's favorite treat is a big ol carrot right out of the dirt. I'll go to the farmer's market and buy a couple of em, because even one keeps her busy for at least an hour. Any time in the summer when she starts being a pain in the ass I just toss a cold carrot at her and she just hangs out in a sunny spot and obliterates it.

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u/powerhammerarms Mar 03 '25

One summer when I was about 8 my cousin and I ate carrots out of my aunt's garden. At first we were rinsing them off under the garden hose but then we really got into it and just started eating them with the dirt.

We ate all the carrots and started in on some of the other vegetables. We got super sick and my aunt was pissed. I was so sick on their couch throwing up in an ice cream bucket waiting for my mom to pick me up that I had a hallucination that I had stood up to walk to the bathroom and I fell on their coffee table and broke it.

I was laying on the couch throwing up and crying feeling bad about the coffee table. And my aunt and my mom are like what are you talking about?

TL;DR I'm part dog

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u/boringestnickname Mar 03 '25

We did that with potatoes when we were kids.

Stole them out of a patch in the kindergarten and ate them raw. I think we actually had a water hose to rinse them with, though. Didn't get sick (but did get in trouble.)