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What is everyone's favorite breath-mint / gum?
I recently finished my 8-pack of ICE BREAKERS DUO strawberry (hard sugar-free mint) which I really liked because they don't leave a sweet/sugary aftertaste in your mouth. I was wondering what I should buy next. What's your favorite brand of mint and why?
Asahi Mints! They’re super thin so they fit in your pocket very nicely. The mints themselves are extremely menthol forward, but honestly it’s completely turned me off of other mints I used to use like Altoids. I don’t think they’re actually sold in the US, but I’m able to buy them online. Sugar free too!
I've chewed gum on and off for most of my life, and at some point switched to sugar-free because I didn't want the extra sugar constantly around my teeth. Then I learned about xylitol (an alternative sweetener that actually seems to be good for your teeth) and have been chewing on that for the past few years almost as part of a dental routine. Spry peppermint-flavored gum specifically. Pretty mild, usually chew one after meals (when I remember) and I find that it helps get some of the larger pieces of food out between my teeth. Not a substitute for other dental care, mind you, just a quick and easy thing to have on hand. And if I was already gonna chew some gum, might as well make it beneficial, ya know?
Kind of a boring answer though, so I'll say that I really enjoyed those sour-flavored gums as a kid, especially Hubba Bubba bubblegum tape.
Xylitol is good for your teeth, and I prefer it for gum, since I use it for dental cleanliness, but if you have cats or dogs, make sure it's kept safely away from them. A surprisingly small amount is lethal to both.
Sugar alcohols can also cause digestive issues in some people too, and they also produce significantly more gas in your colon than sugar since it takes way longer for your gut bacteria to break them down. I personally don't have any issues with them (other than a bit more flatulence) and regularly consume a fair amount along with other low/zero cal sweeteners. However, my mother cannot consume any sugar alcohols or she gets painful bloating and diarrhea, probably due to her having diverticulosis.
To add on to this - as a diabetic:
Some people have more "distress" than others with sugar alcohols. The fun thing about that is:
So for me, while I have less "distress", it means they impact my glucose levels. Ultimately, I tend to try and avoid them and just limit my intake of carbs-but-most-especially-sugars. :)
Yeah, sugar alcohols being marketed as "diabetic friendly" is a bit deceptive. Sure, they don't cause a sudden spike in blood glucose levels like consuming regular sugar does, but they do still cause it to rise over time. And if they're combined with dextrose and/or maltodextrin (which many "proprietary blend" artificial sweeteners like Splenda use as bulking agents and texture improvers) their benefits over regular sugar pretty much entirely disappears. The caloric difference between sugar and some sugar alcohols also isn't massive either, but it can still make a pretty big difference overall, especially when you're trying to lose weight by counting calories.
I personally much prefer good old-fashioned aspartame though, TBH. The incredibly bad rap it gets is almost entirely coming from anti-science FUD peddlers. It's the most well studied sweetener in human history, and unless someone is actually allergic to it (rare) or suffers from phenylketonuria (exceptionally rare), it's the best of the bunch, IMO.
I've read that aspartame is one of the most studied single substances in the world, and that sounds about right.
I think the current consensus is that you might be able to consume too much of it, but compared to the "everything causes cancer" trope (which has…some...validity) it's really not a big deal.
Certainly for me, it would have been better to consume way more aspartame and way fewer carbs when my diabetes was unmanaged for a decade, causing my current problems. heh
I will say though that too much sweetener starts to taste bitter - a trick I found that works for me when I want something like Southern iced tea - one packet each of aspartame, sucralose, and stevia. I'd only use two packets of sweetener - three is excessively sweet, but it still isn't bitter. So it's fun to have a super-sweet glass of iced tea from time to time. :)
I don't think that's actually true, unless you're basically mainlining it. And funnily enough, this was addressed in a WIRED video I recently watched featuring biomedical scientist Dr. Andrea Love: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk7WlWV-8h0#t=1m50s
TL;DW - You would have to drink 50 cans of diet soda per day to approach even a minimal risk of harm from aspartame. And if you attempted that you would likely suffer from water intoxication long before you reached even minimal aspartame toxicity levels. Aspartame is made of two bonded amino acids (aspartic acid and phenylalanine), and when you ingest it your body breaks it into those constituent parts which then get used for protein synthesis. So it's pretty damn hard, bordering on physically impossible, to OD on it.
I don't have links, sorry, but it was a few years ago - definitely did not feel like the anti-aspartame hype (I'm on the anti-hype side, to be clear), but it was something about triggering the body's insulin and making diabetes worse. IIRC, it seemed legit to me, but also was not a huge clear thing. "Made worse" not "killed people", for example. It didn't make me stop using it in the slightest, if that helps explain. I feel that the benefits far outweigh the risks as I vaguely remember them.
So yeah, it wasn't about toxicity, it was a more subtle secondary-type effect. And again, I'm an aspartame supporter. :)
I think I actually know the study you're referring to, which was about aspartame potentially leading to insulin resistance. However, IIRC that study was conducted on mice with no human studies to back up its findings, as almost all the negative ones about aspartame only ever seem to be. And also IIRC, like most of those negative studies on aspartame the levels that the mice were exposed to was equivalent to genuinely absurd amounts for humans (in the range of hundreds of diet sodas a day).
That is all only half-remembered third-hand information for me though, so take it with a giant grain of salt... especially since (again IIRC) I only ever heard it being discussed in a podcast with athletic nutrition coach Stan Efferding... who is Mitchell Hooper's nutrition coach, and since Mitch is a hero of mine that's why I tend to hear a fair amount of nutrition related opinions from Stan as well. I tried to find the podcast so I could listen to it again to make sure, but unfortunately had no luck finding it again. :/
Edit: Found a different clip from another podcast where Stan talks about one of the more recent aspartame cancer concern studies, and he responded with similar criticism about it being only a mouse study with absurd relative dosages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh8XYtSRICI
I think recommendations are mostly based on a "better safe than sorry" basis when it comes to cats since there is no evidence of it being poisonous to them.
Whoa, didn't know that. Good tip, thanks!
Woah, thanks for sharing that Xylitol gum! Sounds like a win-win if I buy that: less sugar and cleaner teeth! I appreciate you sharing the hubba bubba too. What a blast time the past.
Bubbletape had the best commercials... https://youtu.be/AMqjIGoOzkU?si=9vomxnjPVH9exdLi&t=61
But generally Orbitz spearmint.
It always cracked me up to see these in convenience stores. American gums will have a small print on the back, meanwhile Lotte makes it the biggest word on the package.
I do not want to be a Debbie downer here, but I recently saw an article about a scientific study examining the amount of micro plastic in both natural and synthetic chewing gums. The results were alarming for me personally and have completely turned me off from being willing to chew gum, which I used to enjoy.
Here is the article:
https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2025/march/chewing-gum-can-shed-microplastics-into-saliva-pilot-study-finds.html
I've hit a level of numbness to the idea of microplastics.
We should fix it at a societal level, but there's plastics in everything so I give up on trying to avoid it.
I 3d print regularly as a hobby so I've already accepted that I'm full of microplastics. At least I'll be a nice mix of PLA, PETG, and PP :)
Eclipse Winterfresh. The ones in the dark blue package. I find the flavor the least offensive of the various minty gums, and for some reason, I don't immediately recoil in disgust at the artificial sweetener.
I can't chew it anymore because I will inevitably chomp the living shit out of my tongue at some point, and I find that one's own blood makes a terrible breath freshener. I'll buy a pack or a small can every once in a while and enjoy the minty-clean feeling for a spell, but it's gotta be a "sometimes" treat.
I like Mentos sugarfree gum. It has flavor that lasts a long time. You might not like it because it's probably a lot sweeter than the Ice Breakers and it has a crunchy coating that seems kind of sugary.
I also recommend Zellies which makes Xylitol mints and gum, another thread on this post talks about the benefits of xylitol. Maybe the mints are better than the gum because the flavor in the gum wears out very quickly. Zellies are kind of expensive but you can buy them in bulk from their website.
PUR gum, aspartame and sugar free with xylitol. There's a variety of flavors but I usually get the spearmint and wintergreen pack since those are the least artificial tasting ones and just have a modest minty flavor to them. I usually have a piece daily after lunch and dinner to freshen my breath and give me something to keep chewing on.
The PUR cinnamon gum is my personal favorite, followed by the various mint ones. 100% agree about the rest tasting pretty artificial (especially the "chocolate" mint flavor, which is so f'n gross!). Almost all their other flavors besides cinnamon and mint also completely dissipate after like 2 min of chewing them too. :/
I've experimented with all kinds of brands for mint gum. My conclusion is that Five gum is my personal favorite. It has the best texture for chewing, the flavor lasts much longer than most gum, and my mouth doesnt get as sore when chewing for long periods of time. The consistency also stays the same for much longer than most gum I've tried.
I don't chew gum (TMJ arthritis), but needed something more effective than plain water for dry mouth problems. Xylitol mints are pricey, especially the ones marketed for dry mouth. Mentos "Clean Breath" sorbitol mints (also contain aspartame, acesulfame, sucralose, and green tea extract) last 15+ minutes each and cost about $4 per 150 mint container. They're intensely mint-flavored, possibly stronger than Altoids.
Sorbitol doesn't have the same dental heath benefits as xylitol, but it's not as likely to promote tooth decay as sugars.
I'm a fan of really strong mints (a holdover from my regrettable smoking days), and bonus if they don't come in a rattly tin. I especially like Fisherman's Friends. You have to go the original extra-strong though, it should feel like you're getting a minty kick in the mouth. You can also keep a packet of these in your pocket all day and they won't get soft and horrible.
Those were always the go-to for coughing sicknesses back in the day. And yeah the originals packed a wicked punch (didn't know they had a mint option, and haven't ever seen them, so might need to check that out.)