Your mom
told you a million times not to do it. You did it anyway. Did it really sit in
your stomach for seven years? Could it possibly have wrapped around your
intestines and strangled them? Is a gum tree still growing inside you? What
really happens if you swallow your gum?
We've all
heard the old wives tale warning of such disaster, but to our knowledge there's
been no serious health issues related to swallowing it (choking on gum is
another matter, though.)
Though
your stomach can't break down a piece of gum the same way it breaks down other
food, your digestive system can move it along through normal intestinal
activity (in other words, it comes out the other end.)
Wrigley,
one of today's top leading gum manufacturer's, explains, "Chewing gum has
five basic ingredients - sweeteners, corn syrup, softeners, flavors and gum
base (the part that puts the "chew" in chewing gum). The first four
ingredients are soluble, meaning they dissolve in your mouth as you chew. Gum
base doesn't. And although it isn't meant to be swallowed, if it is, it simply
passes through your system, just like popcorn or any other form of
roughage." It starts traveling down your esophagus, into your stomach,
enters the small intestine, and makes its way to the large intestine. This
normally takes only a few days.
I know I’ve
always swallowed my Gum anyway, but it is good to know I don’t have a great
wall of Gum building in my stomach.
I've actually haven't heard of this "gum" tale until high school, when a teacher told me to spit out my gum and I instead swallowed it. After he mentioned that the gum would stay in my system and build up, but I was never sure if that held any truth. Although I've never purposely swallowed my gum again after that, its good to know that it will eventually leave my system.
ReplyDeleteI have never dwelled on this topic so much as to actually research the process of how it travels through the body...but it is relieving to know that I will not become seriously harmed by it. I stopped chewing gum a while ago when I kept biting my cheek. I was told that studies have shown people who continuously bite their cheeks eventually get cancer of the mouth, and this steered me away from the somewhat annoying habit.
ReplyDeleteHahahahah, boy does that myth bring back a flood of memories. It's still impossible for me to even think about swallowing my gum because of how terrified I was when I first heard about the supposed ill side-effects of the harmless action. It's still extremely comforting to know that no one will have to get their stomachs pumped because of their excessive gum swallowing.
ReplyDelete