• Question: Is it true that if you swallow chewing gum it stays there for up to 5 years?

    Asked by elizabethjanee to Tom, Steve, Meeks on 16 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Marieke Navin

      Marieke Navin answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      If you swallow an apple pip does it grow into a tree? I reckon it’ll pass through as quickly as normal food. Who knows?!

    • Photo: Steve Roser

      Steve Roser answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I have one answer to this. Sweetcorn. Here it gets nasty. Have you ever noticed when you eat sweetcorn (which has a tough outer coating on the soft corn) you – how can I put this – see it again? Yup it goes staright thru your gut. The stomach can’t digest chewing gum, but you poo it out, like sunflower seeds and sweetcorn. I’ll stop now.
      Oh, except to say I have a scientist friend who has invented unsticky chewing gum. Expect it soon.

    • Photo: Tom Hartley

      Tom Hartley answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I am no expert but I hope not as I have occasionally swallowed gum by accident (nothing bad happened). I wouldn’t make a habit of swallowing gum, because I can imagine its rather hard to digest and could cause problems if you swallowed a lot of gum in a small space of time. I checked this up via google and I found this advice:

      http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/yucky/swallowed_gum.html

      Summary: don’t swallow gum on purpose and you should be fine.

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