Fact or Fiction?: Chewing Gum Takes Seven Years to Digest | Scientific American October 11, 2007 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm # Fact or Fiction?: Chewing Gum Takes Seven Years to Digest A myth as durable as gum itself holds that the chewy confection sticks to your innards like it does to the bottom of a desk It's a moment nearly everyone has experienced. You're contentedly chewing a wad of gum when an unforeseen turn brings about a quick disposal—the hard way. Whether the cause is imminent detection by a high school teacher, a dearth of garbage cans or even an untimely hiccup, you gulp down the rubbery gob whole. It's only then that a refrain from childhood echoes through your mind: "Don't swallow chewing gum—it will stay in your system for seven years!" As the minty mass descends into your digestive abyss, you wonder: "Will I really be part Wrigley for years to come?" Rest assured—this decades-old bit of folklore, of unknown origin but almost universal renown, has little basis in fact. Asked if the rumor is medically unfounded, pediatric gastroenterologist David Milov of the Nemours Children's Clinic in Orlando, Fla., replies: "I can tell you that with complete cert

What Happens If You Swallow Gum? Search Advertisement Advertisement April 25, 2022 / Health Conditions / Digestive What Happens if You Swallow Gum? No, it doesn’t stay in your stomach for seven years Image content: This image is available to view online. View image online ( https://assets.clevelandclinic.org/transform/6abc5d20-2233-44c5-bc14-3aea80d781dc/SwallowingGuml-1305772635-770x533-1_jpg ) A child blowing a bubble with bubble gum If you’re a gum chewer, you’ve been there: You need to get rid of your gum, but there isn’t a trashcan to be found, not a scrap of paper in sight. Sure, you could stick it to the underside of a table, but you’re not trying to be rude. Advertisement Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy So, you swallow it. But now what?! Rumors say gum stays in your stomach undigested for up to seven years. Registered dietitian Beth Czerwony, RD, LD, debunks this claim and explains what really happens when a piece of gum makes its way into your insides. Is it bad to swallow gum? Swallowing one piece of gum every now and then isn’t likely to do any harm. But you shouldn’t make a habit of swallowing your gum on a regular basis, as it has the potential to do some damage. Gum used to come from tree resin. These days, though, chewing gum is made of a substance called gum base, which is largely synthetic — not made from any real food ingredients. Gum base is non-nutritive, which means it doesn’t provide any nutritional value, and is nondigestible, which means your body can’t break it down like it does other foods. “Gum base isn’t able to be digested, so it just stays in your guts all the way through and doesn’t break down,” Czerwony explains. Does gum stay in your stomach for seven years? No. “You’d have to be experiencing some other medical condition for anything you swallowed to stay in your body for seven years,” Czerw