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Topics: Health, Food and Drink
Callum Jones
Topics: Health, Food and Drink
Doctors have finally spoken out on whether or not it's dangerous to swallow chewing gum.
We've all been there haven't we? You've had enough of the gum, there is no bin in sight, what do you do?
Often you end up swallowing it, despite the long-running theories suggesting gum stays in your stomach undigested for up to seven years and can even become wrapped around your heart.
These have been debunked over the years, with experts providing less catastrophic outcomes to swallowing chewing gum.
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While swallowing one piece of gum is unlikely to do any harm, you really shouldn't be making a habit of consuming chewing gum on a regular basis.
According to Cleveland Clinic, chewing gum is made of a substance called gum base.
Because it's not made from any real food ingredients, gum base is certainly not nutritious and it's also non-digestible.
Essentially, your body can't break down chewing gum like it can any other foods.
As per the Cleveland Clinic, dietician Beth Czerwony said: "Gum base isn’t able to be digested, so it just stays in your guts all the way through and doesn’t break down."
The expert went on to reassure gum eaters you don't have to worry if you swallowed one or two recently.
She continued: "You’d have to be experiencing some other medical condition for anything you swallowed to stay in your body for seven years.
"If you’ve swallowed a piece of gum, it’ll come out about 40 hours later in your stool. Because it can’t be digested, it comes right out whole."
Meanwhile, on Mayo Clinic, a concerned parent wanted answers surrounding chewing gum after their six-year-old daughter consumed some.
"My 6-year-old daughter accidentally swallowed a wad of chewing gum. Should I be concerned?" the parent asked.
Elizabeth Rajan MD replied: "If you swallow gum, it's true that your body can't digest it. But the gum doesn't stay in your stomach. It moves relatively intact through your digestive system and is excreted in your stool.
"On very rare occasions, large amounts of swallowed gum combined with constipation have blocked intestines in children. It's for this reason that frequent swallowing of chewing gum should be discouraged, especially in children."
If you experience symptoms such as abdominal pain, constipation, or severe cramping after you've swallowed a lot of gum then you should pay a medical expert a visit.
Other symptoms include vomiting and a feeling of extreme fullness or swelling, according to Cleveland Clinic.