Wallet Pop reports today about many favorites of the Future First Family: restaurants and pizzerias they like to dine and have lunch; the cloth they buy, a private school their children attend in Chicago, and Obama’s Favorite Gum.

                                                            

On NYTimes.com you can find another fact that “Barack is a smoker and to fight the habit he chews a lot of gum. His favorites are Nicorette and Dentyne Ice.”  Hmm…  Nicorette is a medicated gum–a chewing gum acting as a delivery system to introduce medicine substances into the saliva and thus into the bloodstream faster than pills. Some people believe in that. Does really our President-elect trust this product? Can he avoid it and choose a healthy alternative for a sake of “kicking the habit?” What about his famous, “Yes, We Can!?”

It is understandable that cravings for cigarettes are actually your brain craving for nicotine. “That’s the forgotten side of “kicking the habit.” Nicotine addiction drives your smoking habit.”, as explaned at www.nicorette.com.  Unless you can beat your cravings coming from nicotine addiction, you can’t beat the habit, as a matter of fact.

Over 35 million smokers try to quit each year using Nicorette  and other different methods.  Less than 5% reach their one-year anniversary. I spoke with some of them who used to chew Nicorette during one year, but they are still dependent on tobacco.  The facts of nicotine addiction are no mystery today.  Clever Philip Morris guys know it better than anyone else. However, they continue to produce zillions of cigarettes every year. By the way, many of them don’t smoke and never did.  They inderstand negative health consequences and how much time can be lost during smoking breaks.  I doubt that Nicorette gum is a solution to the problem, but to quit smoking is definitely beneficial.

Dentyne Ice made by Cadbury-Schweppes is a sugarless gum available in several flavors–”intense mints,” such as Peppermint, Arctic Chill, Spearmint, Shiver Mint, Vanilla Frost, Wild Winter. Dentyne introduced Dentyne Ice recently and became a favorite mouth-refreshener of our President-elect. I am not sure that this product is so great after I read a long list of its infredients: Sorbitol, Maltitol, Gum Base, Mannitol, Artificial and Natural Flavoring, Acacia less than 2%, Potassium less than 2%, Aspartame less than 2%, BHT less than 2%–to maintain freshness, Candelila Wax less than 2%, Soy Lecithin less than 2%, Sucralose less than 2%; Titanium Dioxide less than 2%–Color

Nutritional Facts briefly: serving size 2 pieces; calories from fat: 5; total carbohydrates: 2g; sugar alcohol: 2g  

My head is “swimming” just by reading a list of these ingredients. Let’s experiment. Try to pronounce these words like “phenylalanine,” etc. You can “break” your tongue and never remember any of these ingredients. The golden rule: If you cannot pronounce or remember a word-ingredient, it is one of the thousands of harmful chemicals cheaply produced by numerous labs around the country and included in our foods and medicines. Chemistry is a queen today for pharmaceutical and food companies. So, the smart thing to do is not only to read all ingredients but understand them, too.

Back to Dentyne Ice, one of favorite products of our President-elect. There is  Warning about one important ingredient :phenylketonurics. It contains phenylalanine (Phe or F). Do you know that phenylalanine is an essential amino acid? It means that it is necessary for human health, but the body doesn’t produce it.  If your body doesn’t get sufficient amounts of phenylalanine, its deficiency can provoke the following symptoms, such as apathy, confusion, decreased alertness, lack of energy, loss of muscle, lowered appetite, loss of memory, weakness.

Dentyne Ice contains artificial phenylalanine, as  well as artificial colors and other chemicals. So, why to poison yourself voluntarily?  Mother Nature comes again to help you. Since phenylalanine (one of the twenty common amino  acids) is not produced by  the human body you can obtain it through your healthy diet instead of chemical substitutes.

Here is a Healthy Diet List of some products rich in phenyllanine you can obtain instead of getting it through supplements or different gums:

Cottage cheese, Goat, sheep, soy, mother’s milk

Egg (yolk, white, whole)

Beef, chicken, fish, meats, pork, poultry, wild Alaskan salmon, seafood, shrimp 

Vegetables, seeds, beans, nuts: Asparagus, Chickpeas (garbanzo beans), Cowpeas (raw), Hummus, Soybeans (raw), Lentils (dry and whole), Flax seed, Sesame seeds, Peanuts (roasted with skins), Brazilian Nuts, Walnuts.

Source: http://www.nicorette.com ; http://www.aolhealth.com; http://www.NYTIMES.com; http://www.omdict.net

Copyright 2008.