The human body does not have enzymes to digest gum, instead it will take about 40 hours to eliminate it through excretion.
Children are often told not to swallow gum because it will take 7 years to digest. However, in reality, chewing gum does not stay in the human body for that many years, according to Julia Zumpano, a nutritionist at the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Human Nutrition in Ohio. She said chewing gum takes about 40 hours to pass through the digestive system and be excreted through the excretory system.
Humans don’t actually digest gum because the body doesn’t have enzymes to digest certain products like gum, said Dr. Nancy McGreal, a gastroenterologist at Duke University Medical Center. If a person swallows gum, it will be excreted entirely. “I have done colonoscopies in a number of cases and found pieces of gum that patients swallowed. But they may have swallowed them within 24 hours, not something from 7 years ago,” McGreal emphasized.
Gum contains a base of sapodilla sap (natural rubber) or a petroleum-based polymer (synthetic rubber), which cannot be digested, according to the Cleveland Clinic. However, the body is capable of digesting some other ingredients added to chewing gum such as sweeteners. According to Illinois Poison Control, swallowing small amounts of gum does not cause any problems, but large amounts can lead to vomiting, constipation, bloating and stomach pain.
However, in rare cases, swallowing gum can cause intestinal blockage if eaten too much at once, according to Zumpano. For example, a 1998 article in the journal Pediatrics documented three cases of children suffering from esophageal or intestinal obstruction due to swallowing gum.
Additionally, consuming too much sorbitol, a sweet alcohol often found in chewing gum, will cause digestive problems, mainly diarrhea, because it absorbs water from the intestines. McGreal once encountered a patient with this symptom after chewing and swallowing a lot of gum.