Does it take seven years for chewing gum to digest?

Feeling worried because you swallowed your gum? Relax. The tale that you shouldn’t swallow your gum because it will take seven years to digest is an urban legend.

Gum base is the part of gum that makes it chewy. It was originally made of a natural resin created from the sap of the chicle tree. These trees are native to Mexico and Central America. Centuries ago the Aztec Indians chewed chicle.

Today most gum base is made of a synthetic material called butyl rubber. In addition to being used in chewing gum, it is also used to make inner tubes for tires, footballs, and basketballs. It’s indigestible and usually passes through you in 1 to 2 days.

You probably still don’t want to swallow gum all the time. There have been cases of children swallowing so much gum that the digestive system became blocked. Gum can also become a sort of glue which can bind other non-digestible things like sunflower seed shells together to form a blockage.

A 2009 study suggests that chewing gum can reduce stress and increase alertness in some situations. So, if your still worried about it you might want chew another piece.