This article was first published in The Skeptical Inquirer.
While we don’t know exactly where the idea originated, the concept that swallowed gum will stay in your digestive tract for seven years (give or take) is widespread. It’s not really the craziest idea that something indigestible like gum could get stuck inside us until you remember how many indigestible things we eat all the time. From fiber to seeds and even the odd coin, our bodies can deal with small indigestible objects in our digestive tract with relatively little fuss. As the thing passes through us, any digestible parts (like the sugar in chewing gum) will be broken down, and what’s left will be dumped into our large intestine to be evacuated at our convenience.
Unless it’s large enough to cause a blockage or we have conditions such as diverticulosis that can cause things to become trapped in the intestines, the object in question will pass right on through after a day or two.
There have been cases of intestinal blockages caused by chewing gum, but these have typically been in people who chew a lot of gum and swallow it all. Think about Willy Wonka winner Violet Beauregarde. Imagine if she swallowed all the gum that she chewed. It’s a good idea to keep gum away from kids until they’re old enough to understand not to eat it, but for most of us, swallowing the odd piece of gum is a perfectly fine disposal technique.
