You may have heard from your parents that if you swallow a gum it could stay in your stomach forever or worse could grow into a rubber tree in your stomach!
Well that's true so don't do it!
When you eat standard food, three processes go to work in your body to turn that food into energy.
The first is obvious, it's Chewing.
This process breaks food down into smaller and smaller pieces. It increases the surface area, meanwhile saliva coats those pieces delivering enzymes that helped break down the food.
finally once swallowed the stomach acids turn any remaining food pieces into mush
This lets the food pass through the rest of your digestive tract smoothly but gum doesn't play by those rules.
As much as you chew it, gum doesn't break into smaller pieces.
It's because it's gum. DUH!
Gum has been around much longer than you think. Ancient Mayan's and Aztec's harvested resin from Sapodilla tree.
They would dry it to stay off hunger. Even back then it was also recognized as a breath freshener.
However, most gum today is made from natural or synthetic polymer most commonly Butyl Rubber. It is used in all kinds of products including adhesives, fiber optics, sealants, cling-film, paper, fuel, explosives, sporting equipment and tires.
But don't worry the butyl on your gum won't make you sick. That's because it can't be broken down.
The entire chewing 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.
An eighteen year old Israeli woman once suffered from a bezoar that blocked her stomach.
The problem: Turns out she had been swallowing at least five pieces of gum every day. The blockage had grown so large that doctors had to cut her stomach open to break it into the smaller pieces and then fish it out of her piece by piece. But chewing gum alone isn't necessarily bad for you. A couple of small studies have shown that the act of chewing gum can actually help relax you because it can help reduce levels of cortisol, the common stress hormone in your saliva.
So feel free to unwrap a chewing gum stick. You won't be alone.
56% of Americans chew gum, each about 280 gum sticks a year. It's a 2 billion dollar industry in the United States alone.
But be wary of swallowing at once you're done. An Occasional piece of gum won't hurt. But with everything else, your body already does for you why put it through with the extra work.
Also, don't spit it out on the ground, that's just gross.
Please find a trash can like a normal person.
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