# What do you think about drinking drinks you've gargled?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-drinking-drinks-youve-gargled/650089>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 12, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-drinking-drinks-youve-gargled/650089 "2013-02-12T16:48:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-drinking-drinks-youve-gargled/650089/21 "2013-02-13T01:49:23Z")

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> [@Jr.DNA\_test](#):
>
> We might as well chew our food, spit it out, take it in again after we’ve ogled it, and swallow. Don’t cows do something of the sort? At least it wasn’t regurgitated.

Cows are worse than you think:

> [@](#):
>
> [Cud](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cud) is a portion of food that returns from a ruminant’s stomach in the mouth to be chewed for the second time. More accurately, it is a bolus of semi-degraded food regurgitated from the reticulorumen of a ruminant.

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**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-drinking-drinks-youve-gargled/650089/22 "2013-02-13T02:03:10Z")

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It’s all there in your mouth anyway. May as well swallow it.

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**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-drinking-drinks-youve-gargled/650089/23 "2013-02-13T02:38:19Z")

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I swish my mouth with water very frequently, after a snack, meal, taste of something, coffee. What’s the difference between just passing it from front to back and swallowing vs. a couple side-to-side swishes and then swallowing? Not much. Whatever’s in there getting swished is already inside my body. It’s grosser to spit, especially if I’m not at home.

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**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-drinking-drinks-youve-gargled/650089/24 "2013-02-13T14:34:53Z")

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Are you gargling around them? If so, THAT’S nasty. If you’re not gargling around them, why do they know what you’ve done?

And, aside from gargling vs. just swigging the beverage, there’s zero difference. If you took a sip and it rinsed stuff from your mouth at the same time, you’d swallow, right?

The above all assumes you’re talking about ordinary beverages. If you’re drinking Listerine, then all bets are off.

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**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-about-drinking-drinks-youve-gargled/650089/25 "2013-02-13T15:13:55Z")

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Depends. If I’m specifically trying to dislodge some food in my teeth, I’ll swallow the water. If I just need to rinse out some nastiness, I spit.

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