Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition

It used to be said that if you swallowed your gum, it would take a whole seven years to digest it; that is not correct.

Chewing gum is about 15-to-30% gum base, which keeps each piece resilient to hours of constant pressure from your teeth. Chewing gum is quite natural for humans as an ancient habit was to chew the resin of trees. But as sticky as gum is to the underside of desks, it isn't as sticky in your body as you may have thought.

So … What Does Happen to Ingested Gum?

Believe it or not, gum does not stick to the walls of your digestive system. Nor does it linger in the stomach. It goes out relatively the same way and at the same rate as normal food. The myth of gum taking seven years to digest might have arisen out of confusion surrounding the idea that chewing gum is indigestible. Gum is termed indigestible due to the resistance against being broken down by a body's digestive system. Gum is relatively unchanged by the trip through the body.

So, don't fret if you swallow your bubble gum on accident. Although I am not saying to swallow your gum opposed to throwing it in the wastebasket next to you; large amounts of swallowed gum, when paired with constipation, has caused intestinal blockage in children in rare cases.

Chewing Gum and Weight Loss

Minute amounts of calories can be burned chewing gum, but does it really help you to shed pounds? The answer is no. However, there is a study that links "sugar-free" gum and weight loss. Sorbitol, which is widely used as a sweetener for these "sugar-free" treats and chewing gum, acts as a laxative.

Before you start throwing out all your treats, know that you have to consume these products excessively to experience the laxative effects. A stick of chewing gum will contain around 1.25g of sorbitol. It takes between twenty and thirty grams of sorbitol is for the side effects to kick in. People that show symptoms often have chewed twenty sticks of gum a day.

Sorbitol is commonly used in "sugar-free" food products and includes those for diabetics. People unaware of the laxative effects of sorbitol may not recognize a link between chewing lots of sugar-free gum (or treats) and gastrointestinal problems. Five to twenty grams of sorbitol can cause cramps and bloating. More than twenty grams can cause diarrhea and severe weight loss.

Resources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7180800.stm

http://www.snopes.com/oldwives/chewgum.asp