When we're young, our parents always advise us not to swallow gum as it can stick to our digestive system and take up to seven years to digest. But are our parents correct? Unfortunately we must say that our parents are not 100% correct: Swallowing gum is not bad for your health!
You gum they are made up of a variety of components, such as sugars, colorings and preservatives. In addition, they have a substance that looks a lot like rubber and can be natural or synthetic, depending on the brand of gum consumed.
When gum passes through our digestive system, enzymes are released, but they cannot digest all of its components. The portion formed by the gum, which resembles rubber, is not decomposed. This makes the gum to be eliminated practically without suffering damage by our digestive system.
While it doesn't cause any problems, this doesn't mean you should swallow all the gum you chew. A large amount of ingested gum can cause a blockage, triggering cold, that is, the difficulty in eliminating the feces.
Some studies have reported cases of children who swallowed a large amount of gum, which caused serious damage. These children had part of their intestine taken by a large mass of the product, which had to be removed for the normal functioning of the organ to occur again. Therefore, it is essential that all children listen to their parents, as swallowing large amounts can cause damage to health.
In addition, it is worth noting that chewing gum does not contain important nutrients for health, therefore, it does not bring any benefits. Due to the lack of nutrients, these products are considered a "non-nutritive chewable substance" by the Food and Drug Administration, a US government agency that controls food and medicine.
ATTENTION: Children under two years of age should not chew gum as, if swallowed, it can cause suffocation.
By Ma. Vanessa dos Santos
