MYTH

For years, parents have been telling their children not to swallow gum because it stays in their stomachs, but it turns out that warning won’t stick.

‘Gum doesn’t take seven years to digest, though this is a popular myth,’ said gastrologist Dr. Paul Rufo of Children’s Hospital in Boston. ‘If it did, I would see gum with every endoscopy/colonoscopy that I did.’

Rufo said gum resists complete digestion but eventually is released from the body.

‘I wonder if it is one of those things that parents tell their children to keep them from doing something,’ Rufo said.