I look on the back of the gum package and see 5 calories for a piece of gum. Are these calories only from chewing the gum and spitting it out, or are there 5 calories total in the piece? Am I taking in more calories if I swallow the gum? I am not fretting and counting my calories - only curious.
As I understand it, the gum base in gum is indigestible. If you swallow it, it’ll just move through your digestive tract along with the rest of the waste. The calories come from sugars in the gum which are soluble and thus are consumed whether you swallow the gum itself or not.