Now you can add your favorite chewing gum to the list, thanks to the alarming findings of a new study. Chewing gum, whether natural or synthetic, contains plant-based or synthetic plastic polymers to enhance texture and flavor retention,

The researchers' analysis revealed that the lion's share of the microplastics were released from the gum in the first two minutes of chewing—thanks to the mechanical action, rather than the enzymatic properties of saliva—reaching 94 percent within eight minutes.

“Our initial hypothesis was that the synthetic gums would have a lot more microplastics because the base is a type of plastic,” Lisa Lowe, the study’s co-collaborator and a graduate student in Mohanty’s lab, explained in a statement. (Yes, certain types of synthetic gum contain petroleum-based polymers.)