A Gastroenterologist On Why You Should Stop Chewing Gum (For Your Gut!)

Believe it or not, your chewing gum can contain FODMAPs. (Remember, FODMAP stands for “fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols,” and they refer to the types of carbohydrates that don’t get digested or are poorly absorbed2 in the small intestine.) Gum typically falls under the polyols bucket, as “these are your sugar alcohols,” says Singh. “Your xylitols, your mannitols, sorbitols—all the things that say sugar-free on the label, most of the time they’re going to have these polyols in them.”