Watching people chew gum is not a pretty sight, but if English football managers are anything to go by, chewing gum appears to be a stress relieving activity. In fact, there appear to be many cognitive benefits. In the book Senescence and Senescence-Related Disorders, Kin-ya Kubo and colleagues noted that chewing gum immediately before performing a cognitive task increases blood oxygen levels in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus—important brain structures involved in learning and memory—thereby improving task performance
