I have had this happen to me under stressful situations before, but never connected it to stress. I used to chew gum in class to help stay awake (I’m narcoleptic) and during particularly stressful exams it would basically dissolve.
Last night, at a marriage counseling session, the gum I was chewing disintegrated near the end of the session. Afterwards, I realized that the strange taste in my mouth that accompanied this event reminded me of the metallic taste I get sometimes when I am in ketosis (low-carb dieting).
I rubbed some spit on a ketone testing strip, and it changed colors indicating the presence of ketones.
I have yet to test whether ketones will disintegrate chewing gum, but from what I have seen online, ketones are common solvents for many compounds.
Is it possible that in states of high stress your body can produce higher levels of ketones than normal in order to prepare for fight or flight?
I don’t really know how I can test this further on my own, since it takes some really high stress for this to happen for me and I don’t really want to experience that very often.