The horrifying reality of what really happens to your body if you swallow too much gum has been revealed.
Detailed in a YouTube video by InsiderTech, the channel tackles the age-old question about whether gum could really live in your stomach forever if you swallow it.
The channel details what really happens to your body, explaining: “When you eat standard food, three processes go to work in your body to turn food into fuel. The first is obvious: Chewing. The process breaks food into smaller and smaller pieces, increasing the surface area.
“Meanwhile, saliva coats those pieces, delivering enzymes that help break down the food.
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“Finally, once swallowed, the stomach acids turn any remaining food pieces into mush. This lets the food pass through the rest of the digestive tract smoothly.”
However, this isn’t what happens when gum is consumed as it ‘doesn’t break up into smaller pieces’.
So, what happens instead? The video continues: “Because it can’t be broken down, the wad of chewed gum hits your stomach intact.
“Your saliva enzymes and your stomach acid can’t touch the butyl in the gum base. But that doesn’t mean it just hangs out.
“Your body is equipped to handle gum in the same way it deals with other food it can’t fully digest, like corn and sunflower seeds. The muscles of your digestive tract move it along and eventually flush it out of your system in a day or two, along with everything else.
“So, no, your gum doesn’t stay in your body when you swallow it. But that’s no reason to start gulping it down by the pack. The more gum that your body has to process, the higher the likelihood that it’ll build up.
“This gum mass could potentially clog your digestive tract, causing an intestinal blockage which can trigger stomach pain or constipation. There’s a lovely name for this blockage: a bezoar.”
And it turns out that this has actually happened to someone as an 18-year old Israeli woman ‘once suffered from a bezoar that blocked her stomach’ due to the fact that she had been swallowing at least five pieces of gum a day.
So, while swallowing a piece of gum occasionally won’t do any harm - and certainly won’t live in your stomach forever - it’s best to avoid making a habit out of it.
The clip prompted a response in the comment section with one user saying: “I swear we all grew up in the same house.”
And another added: “When I was a kid, my friends told me that I could fart a bubble if I accidentally swallow my gum.”