Is Swallowing Chewing Gum Really Bad?

Chewing gum has an extended historical past spanning 1000’s of years, the place totally different civilizations chewed on pure supplies equivalent to resin or tree sap. Nevertheless, the fashionable iteration of chewing gum emerged within the nineteenth century. It was throughout this time that John Curtis from Maine, USA, launched the primary commercially profitable spruce gum, produced someday within the late 1840s. This gum was crafted from spruce tree sap and sweetened with sugar, marking a major growth within the evolution of chewing gum.

At the moment, chewing gums sometimes include a gum base, sweeteners, flavorings, and typically softeners or preservatives. The precise components and proportions can differ between manufacturers and merchandise. The gum base gives the attribute chewy texture, and is accountable for giving the gum its elasticity, permitting it to be chewed for prolonged durations with out disintegrating. It’s also the identical motive why many individuals imagine that swallowing chewing gum is unhealthy. It is because they imagine it will get caught within the abdomen for 7 years.

However what’s the fact?

DOES CHEWING GUM STAYS IN YOUR STOMACH FOR YEARS?

Chewing gum doesn’t linger within the abdomen for an prolonged interval. Not like meals gadgets that endure in depth digestion, chewing gum just isn’t damaged down in the identical manner. That is particularly the case if the gum base is artificial. The artificial nature of the gum base makes the chewing gum to go by means of the digestive system comparatively shortly, sometimes inside a couple of days. The digestive course of ultimately expels it from the physique by means of bowel actions.

One of the vital generally used artificial gum bases consists of petroleum-derived polymers like butadiene-styrene or polyvinyl acetate. These are food-grade components, and have been accepted by the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) as secure to be used within the manufacture of chewing gum. Throughout the early days of chewing gum manufacturing, gum bases constituted of pure sources equivalent to chicle (from the Sapodilla tree), spruce sap, or beeswax have been widespread.

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The assumption that chewing gum stays in your abdomen for years has roots in misunderstandings about digestion and the composition of gum. Regardless of its persistence, there’s no scientific foundation for this notion. The parable seemingly emerged as a consequence of a lack of information about how the physique processes gum and the truth that it doesn’t break down like different meals.

The parable may additionally have been perpetuated by anecdotal accounts or tales handed down by means of generations, additional solidifying its place in common perception. Regardless of efforts by medical professionals to debunk the parable and educate the general public in regards to the digestive course of, it has persevered over time.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS TO A CHEWING GUM AFTER INGESTION?

Not like meals gadgets that endure enzymatic breakdown within the abdomen and subsequent digestion within the intestines, the gum base’s artificial nature renders it proof against the physique’s digestive processes. Particularly, the gum base consists of polymers and resins that resist dissolution within the acidic atmosphere of the abdomen and should not acknowledged by the digestive enzymes current. As a substitute of being damaged down like conventional foodstuffs, gum traverses by means of the gastrointestinal tract largely unchanged.

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As soon as within the intestines, the gum encounters the peristaltic contractions that propel meals and different supplies by means of the digestive tract. Regardless of missing dietary worth, the gum might endure partial mechanical breakdown, facilitated by the motion of intestinal muscle mass, which assist push it alongside its journey. All through this course of, the digestive system continues its regular operate of absorbing vitamins and fluids from ingested substances, abandoning the indigestible parts of the gum.

Whereas our digestive system can’t break down chewing gum, it often passes harmlessly by means of the digestive tract inside a couple of days and exits the physique along with your stool throughout a bowel motion.

Though swallowing chewing gum does probably not trigger hurt, there is no such thing as a actual motive so that you can do it. Chewing gums should not meant for swallowing, and must be disposed of correctly after use. Nonetheless, swallowed chewing gum can doubtlessly result in digestive discomfort or, in uncommon circumstances, intestinal blockages.