--- title: What really happens to things you swallow — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «What really happens to things you swallow», a lesson of the myths course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Jake leans in at break, dead serious: "Swallow your gum and it sits in your tummy for SEVEN YEARS. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Myths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/) / What really happens to things you swal… # What really happens to things you swallow Lesson 1 of the myths course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/0/) — Jake leans in at break, dead serious: "Swallow your gum and it sits in your tummy for SEVEN YEARS. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/1/) — My cousin's doctor said so." Everyone gasps, and somebody quietly spits theirs into a tissue. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/2/) — Food myths are delicious: a melon growing in your belly, eight spiders a year crawling into your sleeping mouth, crusts that curl your hair, a Mentos and cola tummy that goes BOOM. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/3/) — The truth is a long tube: what you swallow goes down to a stomach full of strong acid, on through the gut, and whatever your body cannot use comes out the other end, usually within a day or two. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/4/) — So a seed has no soil or sunlight to grow, gum cannot stick for years, and gas from fizzy drinks escapes as a burp; your body is not a sealed bottle. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/6/) — Swallowed chewing gum cannot be fully digested, but it moves through the gut and comes out in a day or two; only swallowing big lumps very often could cause a blockage. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/8/) — Seeds cannot grow in your stomach, which is dark, very acidic and has no soil; swallowed pips simply pass through. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/9/) — Eating crusts does not make hair curly; curliness comes mostly from your genes and the shape of the tiny pocket each hair grows from. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/10/) — There is no good evidence that cheese gives you nightmares (the idea got a push from Dickens's Scrooge blaming "a crumb of cheese" for a ghost); a big, heavy meal late at night can disturb sleep, whatever the food. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/11/) — Apple pips contain a substance that can release cyanide, but the amount is tiny and a whole swallowed pip usually passes out unbroken; harm would need a very large number chewed at once. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/12/) — Coffee does not stunt growth, but it is still not good for children because its caffeine can spoil sleep and make you jittery. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/13/) — Spinach is healthy, but it gives no sudden muscles; muscles grow over months with exercise, food and rest, and Popeye is a cartoon that exaggerates on purpose. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/14/) — The famous story that spinach's iron was overrated because of a misplaced decimal point is itself disputed and partly a myth. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/15/) — Mints dropped into an open bottle of cola make a real fizzy fountain, but in a body the gas just comes back up as burps; the stomach does not explode. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/16/) — You cannot swallow your tongue, because it is fixed to the floor of your mouth. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/17/) — If someone has a seizure (a fit, when the body shakes and they can't control it), you must never put anything in their mouth; keep them away from hard things, time it and call an adult or 999 or 911 for help. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/1-what-really-happens-to-things-you-swallow/18/) — A scary number, a cousin's doctor nobody has met, or half a headline is not proof; ask who measured it and read the whole thing, and remember one example proves little, while a record kept over many days shows much more. - next →: [Your amazing brain and senses](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/2-your-amazing-brain-and-senses/) - ↑ back to [Myths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/)