Highly refined white sugar is everywhere we turn. It shows up in bread, packaged food we make for dinner, and in about every processed item you can find on the shelves in the supermarket. Sugar is also available to children at every turn making it irresistible at every holiday, family event, and summer picnics.
Refined sugar is bad for your teeth, and it’s bad for your body leading to obesity and diabetes. But how can we stop this bad habit? An ancient Ayurvedic medicine turned into a consumer product might do the trick. A new gum called Sweet Victory has been created for kids to stop sugar intake in people and children who can no longer say no to sweets.
Using a natural plant inside the gum, after chewing it every sweet thing you eat will taste bitter and unpleasant. Or like overcooked vegetables.
Developers of Sweet Victory chewing gum claims that it works within two minutes by blocking the sugar receptors on the tongue. The effect can last up to two hours, and during that time sweet foods or beverages that normally excite the senses will taste bland or even sour.
Tastes like a bland overcooked vegetable
The impulse for a sweets binge can be abated, lasting even longer than the physical effect—up to two hours. Sweet Victory gum was designed to help consumers to reduce sugar intake in an easy and fun way. The product for kids is still in the prototype stage, but the company expects to launch it by the end of 2022.
The findings of a new study were presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity in the Netherlands. It included 2,336 children from the UK, making it the largest dietary dataset of young children.
Parents were asked to complete three-day eating diaries for their children when they were toddlers (21 months old) and again when they were seven years old. The study revealed at least 80% of seven year olds exceeded the recommended limit of 10% of daily calories from free sugars.
How does the sugar-blocking gum work?
The gum uses a traditional herb from Ayurvedic medicine called Gymenma sylvestre. After chewing the “trick gum” that tastes like fruit the kids no longer enjoyed candies – as after the gum the sweets tasted either bitter or sour. Some research suggests that the plant leaf extracts can also reduce blood sugar levels.
The atomic arrangement of gymnemic acid molecules, the active ingredient in the plant, is similar to that of glucose molecules. These molecules fill the receptor locations on the taste buds thereby preventing its activation by sugar molecules present in the food, thereby curbing the sugar craving.
Common names of the plant include gymnema, Australian cowplant, and Periploca of the woods, and the Hindi term gurmar, which means “sugar destroyer”.
Some scientific studies have reported the link between the gurmar plant and its anti-diabetic effects. If you are trying to avoid buying processed products, you can order extracts of the leaves online at herbal shops. Or try growing the plants at home and make a herbal extract from the tea.
Other diabetes-blocking natural extracts and products include camel milk,
