What Happens if You Swallow a Chewing Gum?

Remember the old myth that swallowing chewing gum will stay in your digestive tracts for seven years? That turned out not to be true, but what actually happens to a swallowed gum, anyhow?

Scientific American has got the answer (including a gruesome but rare case of gum-based gastrointestinal blockage that looks like a prickly porcupine!): Link - Thanks Scott!

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Posted on

October 11, 2007 at 3:48 pm by Alex
Category: Food & Drinks, Medicine

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4 comments to "What Happens if You Swallow a Chewing Gum?"

Tim Giachetti
October 11th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
I love it! Alex you sick little puppy. heheheheh And here I believed you would fart and float away!
Justin
October 11th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Nice. oh btw, the link takes you to page 2 instead of 1.
Alex
October 11th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Oops - thanks Justin. It was pretty lame for SciAm to split it to two short pages just to boost their pageviews. Nevertheless, I’ve fixed it.
Nathan Miller
October 12th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I’ve always been under the impression that swallowing gum had no effect whatsoever, so I never had a problem doing so. I now know that there are some dangers… but I doubt that I’ll stop.

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