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  • Toothpaste recalled nationwide as FDA issues risk warning

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    A nationwide recall of more than 40,000 units of toothpaste has received the lowest risk level by the Food and Drug Administration.

    A recall for Sensodyne Pronamel Active Shield Toothpaste for Sensitive Teeth began on August 5 over concerns that “Fresh Mint” tubes were mislabeled “Cool Mint/Whitening.” The outer carton was labeled accurately.

    FDA inspectors classified the recall as a Class III, the lowest of three risk levels, on Tuesday, indicating the mix-up was “not likely to cause adverse health consequences.”

    Newsweek contacted Haleon, which makes Sensodyne, via email on Tuesday.

    Why It Matters

    The FDA assigned this recall a Class III designation, which applies to situations where the use of or exposure to the recalled product is not likely to cause adverse health consequences. While the FDA determined the risk to be minimal, the corrective move underscores the regulatory attention to food contact safety and manufacturing consistency.

    A stock photo shows someone ready to clean their teeth.

    Getty Images

    What To Know

    The FDA recall entry listed the product as Sensodyne Pronamel (potassium nitrate 5 percent, sodium fluoride 0.25 percent) Active Shield Toothpaste for Sensitive Teeth, Fresh Mint, Net WT 3.4 ounces (96.4 grams).

    The product came in cases containing six tubes, and the recall affected 46,692 tubes, the FDA alert said.

    It added that the products were recalled by New York-based Haleon U.S. Holdings after having been distributed nationwide by GSK Consumer Healthcare.

    The FDA’s new classification record listed the recall reason as “labeling.”

    “Label Mix-up: The outer carton is labeled Fresh Mint. The tube is labeled Cool Mint/Whitening. The toothpaste inside the tube is Fresh Mint as indicated on the outer carton,” the alert said.

    The recall entry included lot and expiration information. The case lot number is 5058RB, and the carton and tube lot number is NJ2A. Both had an expiry date of August 31, 2027.

    FDA inspectors carry out a hazard assessment before issuing one of three risk levels. The three classifications are these:

    • Class I—a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.
    • Class II—a situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote.
    • Class III—a situation in which use of, or exposure to, a violative product is not likely to cause adverse health consequences.

    What People Are Saying

    The Food and Drug Administration said on its website: “Product problems should be reported to the FDA when there is a concern about the quality, authenticity, performance, or safety of any medication or device. Problems with product quality may occur during manufacturing, shipping, or storage. They include … labeling concerns.”

    What Happens Next

    The FDA lists the recall as ongoing. The alert did not provide consumer return or disposal instructions.

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  • Chewing Gum for Weight Loss?  | NutritionFacts.org

    Chewing Gum for Weight Loss?  | NutritionFacts.org

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    If extra chewing is effective in suppressing your appetite when it comes to food, what about chewing gum as a weight-loss strategy? 

    As I discuss in my video Does Chewing Gum Help with Weight Loss?, chewing gum may only burn about three calories an hour, but the calorie expenditure isn’t only working your little jaw muscles. For some reason, chewing gum revs up your heart rate as much as 12 extra beats per minute after chewing two sticks of gum, even if you’re just sitting quietly, as you can see in the graph below and at 0:21 in my video. It also works while walking, increasing your heart rate by about three more beats per minute (and proving scientifically that people can indeed walk and chew gum at the same time).  

    Does this translate into weight loss? Researchers at the University of Buffalo asked study participants to either chew gum before every single eating occasion or not chew any gum at all for a number of weeks. On the gum-chewing weeks, the subjects didn’t just have to chew gum before each meal, but also before each snack or drink that contained any calories. That may have been too much, so the participants actually ended up eating on fewer occasions, switching from four meals a day on average down closer to three. They ended up eating more calories at each of those fewer meals, though, and had no overall significant change in caloric intake and, no surprise, had no change in weight. See the charts below and at 1:08 in my video. 

    University of Alabama researchers tried a different tack, randomizing people to chew gum after and between meals. After two months, compared to those randomized to avoid gum entirely, no improvements were noted in weight, body mass index (BMI), or waist circumference. However, some studies have suggested that chewing gum has an appetite-suppressing effect. For example, as you can see below and at 1:51 in my video, in one study, people ate 68 fewer calories of pasta at lunch after 20 minutes of chewing gum, but other studies have shown differently. 

    Whenever there are conflicting findings, instead of just throwing up our hands, it can be useful to try to tease out any study differences that could potentially account for the disparate results. The obvious consideration is the funding source. That failed University of Alabama weight-loss study was funded by a gum company, so the outcomes are not necessarily predetermined. 

    As well, different types of gum using different sweeteners may have contributed to the diversity of findings. As you can see in the graphs below and at 2:35 in my video, a study that found that chewing gum may actually increase appetite was done with aspartame-sweetened gum. People reported feeling hungrier after chewing the sweetened gum—and not only compared to no gum, but compared to chewing the same gum with no added aspartame. It’s true that not one randomized controlled trial has ever shown a benefit to “chewing gum as a strategy for weight loss,” but they all used gum containing artificial sweeteners.

    There was a landmark study that showed that the size of a sip matters when it comes to reducing the intake of sweet beverages. When study participants took one sip every two seconds or a quadruple-sized gulp every eight seconds, but with the same ingestion rate of 150 grams per minute, the smaller sip group won out, satiating after about one-and-a-half cups compared to two cups when taking larger gulps, as you can see in the graph below and at 3:13 in my video. This is thought to be because of increased oro-sensory exposure, so our brain picks up the more frequent pulses of flavor and calories. But repeat the experiment with an artificially sweetened diet drink, and the effect appears to be blunted, as you can see in the graph below and at 3:38 in my video. So, might a different type of gum have a different effect? The positive pasta study I discussed earlier was performed using gum sweetened mainly with sorbitol, a sweet compound that’s found naturally in foods like prunes, and, like prunes, can have a laxative effect.

    Case reports like “An Air Stewardess with Puzzling Diarrhea” unveil what can happen when you have 60 sticks of sorbitol-sweetened sugar-free gum a day. Another report was entitled “Severe Weight Loss Caused by Chewing Gum.” A 21-year-old woman ended up malnourished after suffering up to a dozen bouts of diarrhea a day for eight months due to the 30 grams of sorbitol she was getting chewing sugar-free gum and candies every day. Most people suffer gas and bloating at 10 daily grams of sorbitol, which is about eight sticks of sorbitol-sweetened gum, and, at 20 grams, most get cramps and diarrhea. So, you want to be careful how much you get. 

    The bottom line is that we have no good science showing that chewing gum results in weight loss. Could that be because the studies used artificial sweeteners that “may have counteracted” any benefits? Maybe, but the most obvious explanation for the results to date “is that chewing gum simply is not an efficacious weight-loss strategy”—and that’s coming from researchers funded by the gum company itself. 

    How Many Calories Do You Burn Chewing Gum? Watch the video to find out. For information on both artificial and natural low-calorie sweeteners, check out the related videos below.

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    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

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