# Can you digest scraps of cloth and pieces of string? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2013, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447 "2013-03-20T14:34:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447/1 "2013-03-20T14:34:36Z")
See subject. I say no, but “asked and answered” is frowned upon here, so the following twist makes the query appropriate. One of the very few things I was told about my relatives’ experiences during the Holocaust is that my aunt (still living), immediately after being liberated from Auschwitz, had to undergo emergency surgery to remove a huge bolus of scraps of cloth and pieces of string she had swallowed over time. I was told (not be her, but but by my father) she did it in an attempt to fill up her stomach so that she at least would feel “full.” I mentioned this story to a slight acquaintance, a veggie-vegan person, who said, “the cotton must not have been organic.” BTW, this was her very first response. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447/2 "2013-03-20T14:43:04Z")
Nope. We can’t digest the cellulose that makes up natural fibers. Many herbivores could digest paper or fabrics (at least in part), but they rely on bacteria that can break down the cellulose. Organic cotton is made of cellulose just like the inorganic kind. (blah blah the USDA definition of “organic” isn’t the same as the chemical definition of “organic”…) ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447/3 "2013-03-20T15:26:24Z")
As much as vegans believe otherwise, humans are not vegetarian animals. Carnivores have sharp teeth and short digestive systems. Herbivores have flat teeth and long digestive systems. Humans are a bit of both. We have sharp teeth in the front (though not as good as carnivore teeth) and flat teeth in the back, and our digestive systems are somewhat medium size in length. What this means is that we are a compromise. We aren’t as good of a carnivore as true carnivores and we aren’t as good of an herbivore as true herbivores. But it also means that we can survive on a wide variety of things. Because we have evolved to eat a bit of both plants and animals, we don’t do well on a diet of strictly plants or strictly animals. Going vegan requires a bit of effort on our part. It can be done in our modern society where the proteins we need that we would normally get from animals can be had from non-animal sources. A vegan in ancient times would not have lived long though. Your vegan friend seems to be under the impression that we can be functional herbivores. Just because we can eat all of the plants in the produce section of the grocery store doesn’t make this so. Cotton fabric, as well as a lot of “organic” plant type things, contains cellulose. True carnivores really can’t digest cellulose very well at all. We do a bit better than that. We can digest cellulose a little bit (our longer digestive tract gives us an advantage over the carnivores here), but most of the cellulose we ingest is going to go in one end and out the other without being broken down for digestion. A longer digestive tract would allow us to absorb a bit more of it, but true herbivores often employ other tricks like rumination to break down the cellulose into something usable. This is the cite that you need to give your friend: > [@](#): > > Cellulose is a linear polysaccharide polymer with many glucose monosaccharide units. The acetal linkage is beta which makes it different from starch. This peculiar difference in acetal linkages results in a major difference in digestibility in humans. Humans are unable to digest cellulose because the appropriate enzymes to breakdown the beta acetal linkages are lacking. From here: [http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/547cellulose.html](http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/547cellulose.html) ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447/4 "2013-03-20T15:40:10Z")
Many dog owners can answer this. There are a number of rope-like dog toys that are made from (I guess)surplus sewing thread woven into thick ropes. Our lab would chew these apart and ingest the threads. A day later this would cause problems with elimination…turds hanging from his anus by long threads. While his owner (me) found this quite disgusting, it seemed more confusing for the dog than anything. So the canine digestive tract doesn’t phase cotton thread. There are significant differences with humans, but they are both mammalian omnivores, so also similar in that respect. ETA: This never seemed to cause blockages, but we stopped providing such toys for unsupervised chewing out of that concern. Still had some for tug-play, but Clancy was not allowed unsupervised access. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447/5 "2013-03-20T15:54:42Z")
people shit out stuff they can’t digest all the time. your stomach is a passageway not a trap. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447/6 "2013-03-20T16:31:07Z")
I remember when a sports journalist said that if [name forgotten] does not win the oncoming badminton World championships he would not only eat his hat, but his Ban-Lon polo sweater as well. In the end he was forced to put his money (or, in this case, his stomach) where his mouth was and he is still alive and kicking after 25-30 years. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447/7 "2013-03-20T16:49:26Z")
Some Indian religious practioners have claimed that they routinely swallow a long piece of cloth, which then comes out the other end, as a means of cleansing their digestive track. **Kevbo** , I didn’t see this with my own eyes, but I’ve heard a credible story about a dog swallowing a jump rope. His best friend had to help with the removal from the other end. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447/8 "2013-03-20T17:00:38Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > people shit out stuff they can’t digest all the time. your stomach is a passageway not a trap. That was also of interest to me, because with her it (they) was trapped. **engineer** , perhaps by your two-fold mentioning of my “friend,” you’re being sarcastic. In which case, naturally I agree. She never was, and after her truly bizaare response to that anecdote–she then turned away and went about her business–she will be even a slighter acquaintance. 😉 ETA: in the very moving documentary about the cartoonist George Crumb and his family, one of crumb’s brothers (eventually a suicide), describes how he does the string line in and out from mouth to anus thing. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447/9 "2013-03-20T17:20:23Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Some Indian religious practioners have claimed that they routinely swallow a long piece of cloth, which then comes out the other end, as a means of cleansing their digestive track. > > **Kevbo** , I didn’t see this with my own eyes, but I’ve heard a credible story about a dog swallowing a jump rope. His best friend had to help with the removal from the other end. Swallowing long fibres. Can be dangerous as they can pull tight as they traverse all those hairpin bends in the intestines. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447/10 "2013-03-20T17:24:05Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Swallowing long fibres. Can be dangerous as they can pull tight as they traverse all those hairpin bends in the intestines. I’m not recommending it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447/11 "2013-03-20T17:29:47Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > people shit out stuff they can’t digest all the time. your stomach is a passageway not a trap. You shouldn’t assume this happens with 100% reliability. > **[Bezoar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bezoar)** > > A bezoar stone (/ˈbizɔːr/ BEE-zor) is a mass often found trapped in the gastrointestinal system, though it can occur in other locations. A pseudobezoar is an indigestible object introduced intentionally into the digestive system. > There are several varieties of bezoar, some of which have inorganic constituents and others organic. The term has both modern (medical, scientific) and traditional usage. > Esophageal bezoars discovered in nasogastrically fed patients on mechanical ventilation and seda... ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-digest-scraps-of-cloth-and-pieces-of-string/653447/12 "2013-03-20T19:03:19Z")
Just a personal note, in light of the (easily obtained) evidence of dogs. I mentioned this quick story to her, in a weird moment of distraction and what-the- hell personal exposure, because it was the one of the first things that flashed in my mind after my dog vomited up a paper bag he had eaten in the near past.