Ryan Weiss

Most chewing gum is plastic and rubber. The pack calls it gum base. Extra reads sorbitol, gum base, glycerol, natural and artificial flavors, then under 2% of sweeteners, soy lecithin, BHT and color. Orbit and Trident read about the same. Gum base is the part you actually chew, and none of the 3 say what it is. FDA rule for gum base names 46 things a company can use and still print those 2 words. Polyvinyl acetate is on it, and that's the polymer in white glue. So is polyethylene, the same family as a grocery bag, and butyl rubber, which is what inner tubes are made of. Then paraffin, petroleum wax, polyisobutylene, pine rosin esters to soften it, and lanolin, which is the grease out of sheep's wool. Pick any mix and the label reads gum base. It's why gum doesn't dissolve no matter how long you chew. The sweetener and the flavor wear out in a few minutes and what's left in your mouth is the polymer, which is also why it stays on a sidewalk for years. Gum used to be chicle, a tree sap. Simply Gum and Glee still use it and say so on the pack.

Mexican Coke is sweetened with sugar. American Coke is sweetened with corn syrup. The US can reads carbonated water, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors and caffeine. The glass bottle imported from Mexico reads carbonated water, cane sugar, caramel color, phosphoric acid, natural flavors and caffeine. Both are 39 g of sugar in 12 ounces. Coke in the US switched to corn syrup between 1980 and 1984. Corn syrup was cheaper here, and part of the reason is that import quotas keep US sugar above the world price. In 2013 the Mexican bottler said it would put corn syrup in some bottles sold inside Mexico, and that everything shipped to the US would stay cane sugar. A year ago Coca-Cola started selling a cane sugar Coke made in the US, in glass, in some cities.