saying bye to weird ingredients with PUR gum

Disclaimer: this product was given to me for review purposes, but this review is my honest and unbiased opinion.

You guys know I'm all about eating real food. AKA eating processed food as little as possible. But I'm also a lil obsessed with chewing gum — it's one of my favorite forms of stress relief, much to my dentist's chagrin (helloooo jaw problems). I've been known to chew up to 3 pieces at a time in times of high stress. Whoops.

With so much gum-chewing, it's important to me to find gum that doesn't have weird ingredients. I've tried many of the gums on the market, including things as natural as Simply Gum to the classic Trident or Wrigley's gum (#tbt amiright???).

Each had its pros and cons: Simply Gum had gorgeous packaging, but looked a little too much like rabbit food pellets and had a tendency to get stuck in my teeth rather than staying a lump of gum; most of the other cheap, classic brands I tried had weird chemicals that I tried really hard not to think about.

So when The PUR Company, makers of PUR GUM and PUR Mints, contacted me and asked if I wanted to test our their new gum flavors, I was 100% on board. Their gum is made with xylitol, not aspartame, and is allergen-friendly.

Most, if not all, of you are probably asking, "What the heck is aspartame???"

It's basically a low-calorie sweetener that's 200x sweeter than sucrose. There are reports saying it can cause cancer, and while that may or may not be true, the truth is, it's not something I would personally want to put in my body (though I already have, with my Trident-chewing habits).

Xylitol, on the other hand, is diabetic friendly, found in nature, and recommended by dentists to reduce plaque build up.

Now to get into the fun stuff: the flavors. There is a range of your classic minty flavors, but also fun ones like bubblegum, cinnamon, and chocolate mint.

They also have mints, for those of you who want fresh breath or something sweet but don't want to chew gum. These flavors are fun as well: mojito lime mint, tangerine tango, and normal peppermint.

I'm a boring girl, so I tried the peppermint gum first, mostly to compare to Trident's mint of the same flavor.

Compared to Trident, PUR had a more refreshing flavor and the actual gum lasted longer without getting rubbery, though the flavors lasted about the same amount of time.

Tthe ingredients, on the other hand, are vastly different — PUR has a much shorter ingredient list.

Over the next couple of days, I've made my way through a third of every single pack, minus the bubblegum (I'm just not a bubblegum girl). What can I say? I'm a gum fanatic.

My favorite flavor was definitely the chocolate mint — if you're looking for something sweet to beat that post-dinner sweet tooth, this is your new best friend. One of my friends said it tasted exactly like mint chocolate chip ice cream.

I personally also really like cinnamon gum, so that was another one of my faves. The classic peppermint and spearmint are also solid choices.

If you're interested in trying it out, use the offer code "ilovepur" for $10 worth of free gum on their website!

You can find The PUR Company on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or via their website.