If you’re one of many people who have swallowed a whole piece of chewing gum by accident, one question likely popped in your head right after that startling sensation.
How long will the gum stay there? There is a common notion that it will sit in your stomach for seven years after being swallowed.“It’s an old wives’ tale,” said Simon Travis, professor of clinical gastroenterology at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. “I’ve no idea where the myth came from — I can only imagine that it was suggested because someone wanted to stop their children from chewing gum.
Dr. Aaron Carroll, a distinguished professor of paediatrics and chief health officer at Indiana University, has written several books debunking myths about the body.“It has no nutritional value,” he said. “Gum is made out of gum-based sweeteners, flavouring and scents. Gum base is a mixture of elastomers, resins, fats, emulsifiers and waxes. So I wouldn’t say it’s healthy.
Similarly, the Pima Indians in what is now the United States chewed on spruce tree sap for thousands of years before European settlers picked up on the habit and it became commercialized, Mathews said.Unless you are in pain or have swallowed a lot of gum, Travis and Carroll said you don’t need to go to the doctor if you accidentally swallow a piece whole.
“If things are open, and there’s no blockages, there’s no narrowings, things are going to go through just fine,” said academic gastroenterologist Dr. Leila Kia, an associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
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