Social media challenges can range from bizarre, hilarious to downright dangerous – it seems there’s no limit to what some people will do for likes. Take the “gallon challenge”, for instance. Social media influencers encouraged their followers to consume a gallon (3.
78L in the UK) of milk in 60 minutes without vomiting. Maybe this doesn’t sound too horrifying – until you conisder that the capacity of the average human stomach is about 1.5L .
Research has shown that 250ml of milk takes just over an hour to leave the stomach. So, the gallon challenge is likely to result in one of two outcomes. Either, the challenger will be plagued by nausea, pain, bloating and diarrhoea as the body tries to help the stomach deal with being too full.
Or, the person will vomit as the body attempts to rid the stomach of its contents and reduce its risk of damage. Overfilling the stomach can lead to gastrorrhexis, when the stomach wall is stretched so much that it tears – and it’s [usually fatal]. Other ingestion challenges include the “cinnamon challenge” where social media users attempted to swallow a tablespoon of ground cinnamon in 60 seconds.
This is a very bad idea. For a start, cinnamon is a rich source of coumarin , a compound that can be toxic to the liver so eating ground cinnamon in such a large quantity isn’t advisable. Also, consuming cinnamon or any other powder form of herbs or spices could damage the lining of the oesophagus or trachea – and even the lungs.
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