There isn't a single answer to this question because different types of chewing gum first appeared in many times and places in history.
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Chewing gum doesn't usually have any nutritional benefit, but it does satisfy a desire for oral sensations.
Gum is good for cleaning your teeth if you use a variety that doesn't contain sugar or acidic citrus flavouring that damages tooth enamel.
Some contain milk proteins which release calcium and phosphate that help repair teeth.
Apparently, chewing gum also stimulates your saliva glands to create more saliva, which influences the kinds of bacteria growing in your mouth.
Thirty years ago in Sweden, a 10,000-year-old type of gum made from birch bark pitch was found. Remarkably it bears the tooth imprints from whoever was chewing it.
Even more remarkably, DNA has been extracted and found to contain bacteria indicating a severe case of gum infection.
Imprints were left by a teenage girl who would've been experiencing considerable pain as she lost her teeth.
The Mayans and Aztecs used the milky coagulated latex called chicle from the sapodilla tree.
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The pinkish to reddish brown substance also makes a handy glue.
The ancient Greeks chewed another type of gum made from the resin of the mastic tree.
Resins from both these trees have antiseptic properties that probably helped maintain oral health.
Modern commercial chewing gum first appeared in the late 1840s when John Curtis used boiled spruce tree resin which he cut into strips and coated in cornstarch so they didn't stick.
He produced this at his chewing gum factory in Portland, Maine. When he realised that the resin didn't taste great and was brittle when chewed, he switched to other ingredients such as paraffin wax.
Then in 1893, William Wrigley Jr began selling his Wrigley's Spearmint and Juicy Fruit brands.
They proved to be a huge hit, making him one of the wealthiest men in America.
Another innovation arrived in 1906 when Frank Fleer worked out how to make a gum that could be blown into bubbles.
He called his first attempt Blibber-Blubber, but it was too sticky.
They fixed that in 1928 when one of his employees came up with a formula which they called Dubble Bubble.
Now we just need a variety that doesn't stick to your shoe.
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