Product Review: Does Extra Sugar Free Gum Give Smokers Extra Help to Quit

Does Extra sugar free gum give smokers extra help in quitting smoking? Here's a story to start my product review.

I have a friend who smoked cigarettes heavily for 30 years. He was hospitalized to have surgery for a bleeding ulcer in 2001 and he had other severe health problems such as kidney failure that later placed him on dialysis. But after his close brush with death in the hospital he was determined to quit smoking for good. He wanted to be able to enjoy retirement for as many more years that he could squeeze in. So how did he do it you ask?

First he started with Big Red cinnamon gum and cinnamon altoids because they had strong flavors and helped with his cravings for smoking. It helped immensely at first but he was relying heavily on them the same way he was chain smoking before. Only this time it was gum and cinnamon breath mints.

He began to become concerned about the extra sugar intake from the gum and cinnamon mints so he tried different sugar free gums. He tried Extra cinnamon which was good but not quite the same as Big Red. Besides he grew tired of the cinnamon flavor and opted to try out other gum flavors. He tried Extra Peppermint and Wintergreen flavors and they were good too but not what he liked most. Finally he tried Extra Polar Ice and the fresh icy flavor was just what the doctor ordered.

His success with quitting smoking with gum has inspired me to try out the different gum flavors. I always like Big Red but dentists have warned me that I need to chew sugar free gum. But sometimes I do still chew Big Red occasionally.

I have tried all the Extra gum flavors over the past couple of years. I like different flavors at different times. Polar Ice was my favorite flavor for a long time then I switched to the Peppermint flavor and then to Wintergreen. I still like Wintergreen as one of the best sugar free Extra gum flavors.

The bubblegum flavor of Extra sugar free gum reminds me of childhood and summers where I spent visiting relatives. It reminds me of the bubblegum balls that came in vending machines as a child and bubble blowing contests. One of my favorite memories of one of my Aunts in East Texas was that she taught me how to blow gum bubbles in front of the Piggly Wiggly when I was a child.

I now have a new favorite Extra sugar free gum flavor. It is Wildberry Frost Extra sugar free gum. But even with all the flavors I like by Extra and how long it lasts... I still like Big Red gum best.