Fromquicksandto turning the lights on in the backseat of a car , some of the dangers you were told to be wary of grow up turn out to be inconsequential . But a fear of swallowing gum is still instill in many people . Whether you heard that ingested chewing gum would clog your plumbing or stay in your abdomen for seven years , you knew to avoid it . If you ’ve managed to get this far in life without swallowing a slice of glue , you may require yourself : How much of the fear is based in urban legend and how much is fact ?
TheInstitute of Human Anatomyrecently investigated the old wives ' story in a television shared byNerdist . According to the educational channel , it is n’t a myth that gum is indigestible . Beneath the dyes and flavorings is something called glue base , which is an umbrella terminal figure for factor like elastomer , wax , rosin , and fillers . These substances are what give gum tree its cartilaginous , endlessly chewable consistency .
The mechanisms of digestion in your mouth — a.k.a . your teeth and spittle — can’t break down the gum base , and neither can the rest of your digestive nerve tract . Even when subject to corrosive fluid like hydrochloric acid ( tum acid ) , pancreatic enzymes , and gall , the gum floor wo n’t decompose . So if you ’ve ever pictured a lot of masticate - up , pinkish gum bubblegum sitting in your stomach after being live with , that image is n’t far from the truth .
The good news is that the legitimacy of the legend end there . While it is true that gumwood does n’t get fully digested inside the human dead body , that does n’t mean it stays there forever . man have evolved to swear out all kinds of indigestible material , such as fiber . If an detail does n’t break down in one part of the digestive system , the body just incite it along the tract until it ’s passed out . That means if you swallow your chewing gum , it wo n’t spend any longer inside your body than the indigestible portions of whatever else you ate that day .
This only apply to accidental intake , and it ’s not an self-justification to let your gum go down the hatch instead of spit it out . As is the event with other indigestible materials — like hair — gum can clump together into abezoarif waste in large quantity . In that scenario , the myth of gum begin stuck inside you becomes closer to realism .
For a ( literally ) stomach - churning visual of the route glue takes through your torso , tick off out the video recording below .
[ h / tNerdist ]
