And that by chewing it you are ingesting a bunch of microplastics? Please confirm if this is true. I don’t want to believe.
Side question: what alternative means is there for sustained, minty fresh breath that does not involve ingesting microplastics? (Mints don’t work that great imo, the freshness wears off too fast. Gum was my go-to. Now what is left?)
it’s mostly a type of latex, some waxes, vegetable oils, lecithin, and glycerin, terpenes, but not polymer plastics.
It’s not natural to have minty fresh breath. It’s natural to succumb to infection and die, though, so don’t worry if that happens.
Dang, any suggestions on plastic-free alternatives to chew on? I’ve been chewing gum the past couple weeks to work my jaw more to help my tense jaw muscles.
You can try harder foods, like a very fat loaf of non-fermented bread or sth.
And of course, you eat that instead of the other bread that you normally eat.
it’s usually xylitol, but yes.
Mostly, yes. Although the aspartame part is optional, it could be any other sweetener or even real sugar.
Floss daily. That’s the best way to ensure your breath isn’t bad.
But not with Oral-B “glide” floss, because it has a shocking amount of PFAS.
God dammit. Every time I think I’m doing something right… Lol
Frankly it should be criminal for them to even put PFAS in hygiene products, it’s reasonable to assume floss is nontoxic. Apparently some recent studies have found mucilagenous fiber (like what is in oatmeal, peas, carrots, beans, and Metamucil) help your body remove PFAS, if you’re worried about potential past exposure.
Oh awesome, I love fibre. I get those fibre-boosted cereals!
Was using that Oral-B glide shit for ages because it was so easy to floss with. Now I use a silk floss that’s objectively a worse flossing experience but I’ve adjusted to it and I’m not scraping off forever chemicals into my mouth so that’s an overall win 👍
Tongue scraper too
Floss mainly pushes the bacteria further down between your teeth and causes parodontitis. Use those wee brushes instead.
To my understanding yes, when the ingredients list includes “gum base”, which is a mixture of chemicals like polyethylene (plastic). I believe there are chewing gum products that don’t include “gum base” or any other plastic ingredients
I heard that myself a couple years ago and was equally disappointed/disbelieving. I started looking for more natural plant-based alternatives, but they’re actually a plastic polymer too. If you’re out hiking and forage for spruce/pine resin directly from the source: it’s still plastic. Very surprising, not what I would have intuited.
It’s not my field so I don’t know if the plant-based stuff is the same level of harm as petroleum-based plastic, but I would imagine either way it’s breaking down into undigestible particles that you’re stuck with for life.
As far as an alternative goes for minty breath: nothing stops you from cutting out the middleman and chewing on mint leaves directly. They grow like weeds so if you get some in your garden you’ll never run out. I guess the freshness probably doesn’t last as long that way, but it makes up for itself in intensity which is just as important for a palate cleanser imo. You could probably get more mileage out of it by turning it into iced tea, then you can sip it whenever you need some freshness.
Mastic I guess would be the next best thing.
I tried it but it’s too hard, you cannot really chew it. Even if you make it softer it’ll get harder after a while (heh)
If you’re out hiking and forage for spruce/pine resin directly from the source: it’s still plastic.
There’s such a thing as naturally occurring plastic? I’m sure that’s not as bad for you though, right?
As far as an alternative goes for minty breath: nothing stops you from cutting out the middleman and chewing on mint leaves directly.
That’s an interesting idea.
There’s such a thing as naturally occurring plastic? I’m sure that’s not as bad for you though, right?
Cyanide is “natural”. Not everything natural is “good” and not everything artificial is “bad”.
To my understanding (though admittedly I’m not like a materials scientist or anything so take this with a grain of salt), “plastic” is a somewhat fuzzy term, the things it generally refers to are artificial polymers, but there are also a lot of naturally occurring polymers used in biology, and it’s not like chemicals care if they’re made by humans or not. One could call naturally occurring polymer materials plastic, but if you did that, you would have to say that, for example, things like wood and insect shells are made of plastic, which isn’t really how people generally use that word. Naturally occurring ones are probably less likely to create “microplastic” type issues though because there has generally been enough time for stuff to evolve to break those materials down, whereas purely artificial ones are too recent for that.
Yeah, the natural stuff isn’t really what we call “plastic”, and it does break down better. The synthetic stuff is much more durable, which is the problem.
Birch tar is at least very close to plastic after it’s hardened
Well shit.
Edit: Apparently me being mad at finding this out is downvote worthy? I’m just scratching my head at this one.
Nah.
Sometimes it’s basically just plastic with sorbitol.
Floss 👍
