When I was younger and was finally allowed to start chewing bubble gum, my parents, teachers and friends warned me that if I swallowed my gum, and didn’t spit it out like I was supposed to, my gum wouldn’t digest, but it would sit in my stomach for 7 years.
Little did I know, gum doesn’t sit in your stomach for 7 years. It digests along with the other food. It doesn’t do any harm to your body if you swallow it (although gum wasn’t made to swallow) the gum will just pass through your digestive system. It doesn’t stick to your insides, it just passes like normal food! "Nothing would reside that long, unless it was so large it couldn't get out of the stomach or it was trapped in the intestine." (Liddle). Just the sugar in the gum is digested. The rest of it, since it is made of rubbers, it cannot be digested. So no fear, your gum will not sit in your stomach for 7 years! It passes along like normal food.
http://listverse.com/2009/02/15/top-10-common-medical-myths/
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I am so glad you posted this topic! Like you for the longest time I really believed that gum would sit in my stomach for years and would never digest. I was so afraid, especially when I was little, that if I swallowed too much gum I would not be able to digest food anymore. Even to this day I get a panic feeling whenever I accidently swallowed my gum. Until I read this I really thought gum took a long time to digest. Good to know its all out of my system! Yet another trick parents use on their kids to scare them out of doing something they just do not want them to do!
ReplyDeleteI have to say that from an early age into adulthood I consciously avoid swallowing my gum for that very reason. The fact that it does not hurt digestrion problems is quite a relief.
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