"Poisoned" by Sugar-Free Gum

Ever find yourself in a public area, carrying on a normal conversation with someone, when suddenly your stomach "drops"? Did you then begin to simultaneously break into a sweat while getting chills up and down your torso? Did you have to immediately find a bathroom (like you had a choice) and then consequently spend the next 15-30 minutes on the toilet while your body heaved violently and painfully?

Chewed a lot of gum did you?

That was me every three to seven days over a period of a year and a half; miserable, sick, depressed, and fearful of going out in public, and this is my story. I was left with no self-confidence and no hope, and it was starting to affect my job and my life in some debilitating ways.

All because of chewing too much sugar-free Orbit White.

I'd always been just an occasional gum chewer, and I'd never had a horrible sweet tooth, but something happened to me in the fall of 2006 that changed all that. I got a second job as a drummer in a professional band. We played local clubs five nights a week and made good money. Along with my day job, I'd started to finally make progress against my debt.

Part of being in a band is that you make friends and chat it up with a lot people. I decided to always have a pack of gum in my backpack so that I never got the "stink-breath". I was very regimented about it, making sure to chew a piece between sets and whenever I hung out with people. This carried over to my day job. I'd chew before meetings, after lunch, etc.

I purchased the gum by the brick at Sam's Wholesale Warehouse.

Looking back, I can see how I'd gone overboard. Always one to watch my weight, I substituted the gum for food and chewed a piece in between jobs or on the way to the store, or sometimes just sitting around the house. Likely I'd been chewing 5 to 8 pieces on average per day. Probably not a lethal amount to most people, but to me it amounted to a slow self-poisoning by sugar alcohols.

The first incident occurred only a couple months after I'd started regularly chewing. I had to exit my drum kit in the middle of a set (a set is roughly an hour long, or 15 songs) to use the restroom. Aside from some razzing from the band, and a sore stomach, it was not really a big deal. I was eating extremely well at the time and my body seemed to be handling it fine. It was only in the spring of 2007 that I started having more and more of these incidents. Some of the time the incidents occurred while I was at home in a comfortable setting, but more and more they were happening in the evening, soon after my evening meal or during times when I was out with friends or in otherwise stressful situations like bending over, exercise or, yes, playing drums.

It helped to be positive, and it also helped to have some Pepto Bismol in my pocket at all times, but even that solution began to wear thin and was likely just as unhealthy for me.

Confused about these incidents, I began a strictly regimented diet again. I even started using a great product, Align, which I still use today. However, I still continued to have severe stomach upsets and some degree of diarrhea once every 3-7 days. I suspected everything BUT the gum I was chewing. After all, how could a piece of gum cause such a violent reaction in my body? I still occasionally drank coffee and couldn't bring myself to give up dark beers, and I knew that having two jobs could contribute to my stomach upsets. Also, because the digestive system is a delayed process, it was never easy to pin down exactly what was causing the problem unless I started fasting away from certain foods, which I'd only partly been able to do.

It wasn't until there was a period of time where I didn't make it to Sam's Wholesale Warehouse that I realized what the problem was. During this two week period, I was only able to chew a few sticks of gum and had very little coffee or beer. I noticed that those had been two weeks with very little stomach upsets. At the very end of those two weeks, me and my girlfriend went for a burger and beer at a local restaurant. After the burger and beer I stuck a piece of gum in my mouth, and then we rolled into the theater for a movie. An hour and a half later, leaving the movie, I was assaulted by the "stomach-drop" and, sitting in the restroom at the theater while my body convulsed, I knew it definitely had to be either the beer or the gum.

The next day, I did a search on "Orbit" and "diarrhea" and my eyes were opened to the vast amount of people out there having problems with sugar-free candies. Specifically, the sugar-alcohols sorbitol, maltitol, glycerol and anything else with a "tol" in it. The relief I felt was nearly palpable as I read about folks who'd shared my experience. I was incredulous that such an innocent (and supposedly good for you) piece of candy could bring a tough, hard-working man to his knees.

I'm not a gastroenterologist but it seems that these sugar alcohols, because they can't be absorbed by your body, build up and ferment in your digestive system. The result is that it can cause an "osmatic purge" by drawing fluids into your small intestine and then, yes, purging them.

So I stopped chewing the crap.

It was two days before I started feeling remotely normal again, and each day after that my digestive system evened out. I dropped the Pepto Bismol, and it seemed my energy level went through the roof. When playing drums, I noticed I was sweating normally again and the "stomach drop" feeling completely dissappeared. At one point, I became very thirsty and drank probably a two liter's worth of water, Gatorade, orange juice and whatever else I could get my hands on. I'd been dehydrated and malnourished the entire length of time I'd been chewing the gum. On the eighth day after quitting chewing, I spent a ten-hour stint at an amusement park with only partial discomfort after eating some greasy pizza; no Pepto Bismol and no emergencies!

Needless to say, I felt almost as stupid as I felt relieved. I was normally a perceptive guy, but this one got past me in the worst possible way.

This isn't a rip on candy companies. With sugar-free alternatives they are only filling a demand, and anyone who eats, drinks or does too much of anything is likely to suffer some kind of consequence. I also should have engaged a gastroenterologist sooner, and recommend anyone with this problem do so immediately. My only argument is that there should be something on the label, some kind of warning that the overuse of the product could have a laxative-like affect.

I just can't imagine doing what it says to do on the label. "Chewing 2 pieces of Orbit White after eating and drinking helps remove stains and whiten teeth." That could add up to 6 to 12 pieces a day for the average person!

Noting what seems to be a growing negative response to these types of products, I suspect that soon there will be warning labels on these types of candies. There is no information that says how long sugar alcohols stay in the body. For me it was around 4 or 6 days, but I suspect everyone is different.

From now on I'm going to play it safe and stay away from the 'tols'. I sure hope you do too!