How long does gum stay in your system?

Question

My son swallowed a piece and asked how long it would be in his belly. His grand-pa says 2 days. The old-wives-tale says seven years. Anyone have a clue?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Nope, that's just a myth that it stays in your system forever! In fact, our stomach doesn't digest gum at all! Gums are not digested with the type of Acid that our stomach or intestine release. Since it's made out of soluble fiber, chewing gum passes right through us. So gum comes out with the rest of your waste, usually a day or two after you eat it. Although you shouldn't swallow chewing gum, it is not considered harmful.

Source(s):

ME

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Thanks, my son enjoyed reading the comments.

Answer 2

Uhh..thats a great question I would like to know that too!!

Answer 3

the old wives tale is partially right, gum sticks to your ribs for 7 years

Answer 4

"This oft-repeated claim may stem from genuine confusion over a term commonly applied to chewing gum: indigestible. Although gum resists the body's efforts to break it down (hence the 'indigestible' designation), it does not linger in the stomach. Gum is eliminated as human waste in the same way — and at the same rate — as any other swallowed matter. Granted, it comes out the far end relatively unchanged by the trip, but it does come out on schedule.

Though parental cautions against swallowing something which was meant to have the flavor chomped from it and then discarded might account for part of the warning's spread, the greater part can likely be attributed to the nature of the substance itself. Chewing gum is quickly worked into an unchanging mass in the mouth that, unlike foodstuffs, barely gets smaller no matter how hard or how long we chew it. Its resistance to being broken down by the teeth works to support the fanciful notion that it has special properties which allow it to lurk in the digestive system year after year. Moreover, since we know we're not supposed to swallow gum, imagination kicks in, inventing a "reason" for this prohibition since the obvious one — that it's not food — lacks an appropriate sense of mystery.

And food it's not. About 15% to 30% of chewing gum is gum base, a natural or synthetic indigestible rubbery substance that makes the treat resilient to hours of jawing. Vegetable-oil derivatives can be added to keep gum soft. Glycerin maintains moistness. Sorbitol and mannitol add sweetness to sugarless gum, and mannitol is often used to dust the gum, along with starch. Artificial and natural flavorings, colorings, preservatives, sugar, saccharin or corn syrup, can also be added.

We come by our desire to chew gum quite naturally. Chewing the resin of trees is an ancient habit, so in that sense, our gum chewing habit has probably always been with us. It took a canny businessman, however, to turn an ordinary rural practice into an indulgence that didn't depend on one's having a sap-dripping tree handy. In 1848, John Curtis of Hampden, Maine, observed loggers chewing spruce resin, and from that sight extrapolated the potential for a lucrative business. He boiled the resin, skimmed it, poured it, cooled it, rolled it, cut it, dusted it with cornstarch, and wrapped it. The gum was priced at a penny for two pieces (which in those days was a not-insignificant sum). Thus was born State of Maine Spruce Gum, the first commercially marketed chaw. Other companies followed, but the paper industry used up too many trees to leave a steady supply of spruce resin for the gum manufacturers, and the industry faltered.

A key event in the history of chewing gum involved the notorious Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the very man who ordered the taking of the Alamo and had all its defenders put to death. Santa Anna introduced chicle, a rain-forest tree resin, to New York inventor Thomas Adams with the idea of marketing chicle as a rubber substitute. That was not to be, but this particular resin turned out to be more useful as a chewing-gum base. Today the Adams name still appears on boxes of Chiclets. "

Source(s):

Snopes.com

Answer 5

It stays in your system until you do your number 2. some rumors i've heard are: oh it stays for 7 years...bleh. It gets treated like everything else that goes into your system.

Source(s):

MAgic School Bus TV series (not kidding--when i was younger)

Answer 6

"Though your stomach can't break down a piece of gum the same way it breaks down other food, your digestive system can move it along through normal intestinal activity (in other words, it comes out the other end.) Chewing gum has five basic ingredients - sweeteners, corn syrup, softeners, flavors and gum base (the part that puts the "chew" in chewing gum). The first four ingredients are soluble, meaning they dissolve in your mouth as you chew. Gum base doesn't. And although it isn't meant to be swallowed, if it is, it simply passes through your system, just like popcorn or any other form of roughage. It starts traveling down your esophagus, into your stomach, enters the small intestine, and makes its way to the large intestine. This normally takes only a few days."

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