MicrobeWorld

You won't find it on the shelves next to Juicy Fruit, but a new Canadian-made chewing gum is being touted for its health benefits, based in part on years of research by microbiologists at the University of B.C.

For those with an aversion to swallowing supplements or eating yogurt containing health-promoting bacterial cultures, Probiotic Gum may be a better vehicle for putting enough friendly bacteria in the mouth to do battle against the bad types that can lead to bad breath and infections.

The mouth contains billions of good and bad bacteria, and the good ones can be used as probiotics because they are living micro-organisms that raise immunity to infection from harmful germs, including the kinds that cause strep throat, earaches, respiratory infections, sinus infections and halitosis (bad breath caused by unfriendly bacteria).