误吞口香糖到底会怎样：不，它不会在你肚子里待上七年的！What really happens if you swallow chewing gum by mistake?

小时候吃口香糖的时候是不是经常被警告：千万不能吞下去！不然它会在你的肚子里面呆七年哦！小朋友们大多信以为真，那么到底口香糖会不会在肚子呆七年这么可怕呢？

It is an urban myth that terrifies young children. 这是个吓坏小孩的都市传说。
Swallow a piece of chewing gum and it will take seven years to pass through your gut before it is digested. Or so they say. 大人们说，吞下一片口香糖需要七年时间才能穿过肠道。
An even hoarier tale has it that swallowed gum can wrap itself around your heart. 更古老的传言是吞到肚子里的口香糖会缠绕住心脏。
But what does happen if you should accidentally eat a stick of gum? 话说，如果你不小心把一片口香糖迟到肚里，到底会怎样呢？
Chewing gum is made out of gum base, sweeteners, colouring and flavouring.
The gum base is pretty indigestible - it is a mixture of elastomers, resins, fats, emulsifiers and waxes.
Most of the time, your stomach really cannot break down the gum the way it would other foods.
口香糖是用树胶基质、甜味剂、食用色素和香料等做成的。树胶基质是很难消化的——它是合成橡胶、树脂、油脂、乳化剂、蜡类的混合物。通常，你的肠胃无法像分解其他食物一样来分解口香糖。
However, your digestive system has another way to deal with things you swallow. After all, we eat lots of things that we are unable to fully digest.
但是，你的消化系统还有另外一种办法来处理你吞咽下去的东西。毕竟，我们吃的很多东西都是不能被完全消化的。
The gut just keeps moving them along until they make it all the way through the intestines and come out the other end.
So gum usually ends up in your lavatory one to two days later. Even though gum is sticky, it is usually no match for the power of your gut.
因此，通常一两天后，口香糖就会被你排泄出来了。虽然口香糖很有粘性，但它还是比不过肠道的“清扫”强力。
Our saliva will make an attempt at digesting chewing gum as soon as we put it in our mouths.
It might penetrate the shell and sweeteners, but the much of gum's base ingredients are indigestible.
当把口香糖放进口中，人体分泌的唾液就努力地想消化它。外层和甜味可以吸收，但大部分的树胶基质成分是无法消化下去的。
It's then down to our stomach muscles - which contract and relax, much like the way an earthworm moves - to slowly force the things that we swallow through our systems.
The system can still get gummed up though.
然后移动到我们的腹部肌肉处---这里一直收缩，舒张，就像蚯蚓移动的那种方式---慢慢使吞下去的东西挤压出去。但小心，这个系统还是可能被东西黏住的。
Swallowing a huge wad of gum or swallowing many small pieces of gum in a short time can cause a blockage within the digestive system - most often in children, who have a smaller-diameter digestive tract than adults - but this is extremely rare.
在短期时间内吞下一大块口香糖或者吞下很多块小的口香糖可能会引起消化系统堵塞，这通常会发生在小孩子身上，因为小孩子的消化管道比大人要小得多。但这种情况也比较少。