The Most Effective Ways to Get Rid of Food Stuck in Your Throat
When it works properly, the human body is an amazing feat of engineering. But when something goes wrong, it suddenly turns into a 20-year-old copier with metastasizing paper jams. For example, eating usually goes pretty smoothly until a piece of food gets stuck in your throat and it just can’t come off.
I was having lunch with my brother recently and ordered a green salad. I was hungry, so I enthusiastically inhaled this salad – literally, as it turned out, when a piece of leafy spinach got stuck in my throat. I could breathe – he wasn’t choking me – he was just… stuck there. I apologized and tried to push him out, clearing my throat frantically, then went back to the table and tried to eat and drink even more vigorously than usual to push him out, but to no avail. When I came home and looked in the mirror, I literally saw this vicious piece of spinach mocking me.
If this has never happened to you, you are blessed. But it can happen to you without warning. So let’s take a look at the various methods you can use to remove a (non-lethal) piece of food stuck in your throat, from the clever to the horrifying.
Keep calm and drink soda
Obviously, if a piece of food interferes with your breathing in any way, seek medical attention. This tip is for people who have food stuck in their back but don’t experience any pain other than mental anguish.
So the first thing to try: Nothing. Your body is a fairly efficient food-dissolving machine, and there’s a good chance that your saliva and swallowing action will eventually break down the nasty piece of food enough to knock it out. Wait a few hours to see if it works for you.
While you wait, have a soda. There’s some evidence that soda, specifically Coke, can help break down food stuck in the esophagus , so popping a few cans while you’re busy without panicking about a blockage in your throat is worth a try. In the worst case, you have too much caffeine and bloating in addition to having a piece of food stuck in your throat.
A related treatment is to take a product such as Gas-X, which contains the active ingredient simethicone. These over-the-counter medications release carbon dioxide in the stomach and esophagus, which can contribute to food thinning . Similarly, Alka-Seltzer or baking soda in water (any fizzy product, really) can help.
Sweep it with more food
If waiting doesn’t work and all the soda in the world is giving you a stomach ache, there are a few more things you can try.
It’s good to eat more, especially if you’re trying soft, moist foods – bread soaked in something forms a thick, textured clump that can catch on an obstructing piece of food and pull it along as you swallow. If you don’t like wet bread, try eating some banana, which has a similar texture.
Another effective method is to eat some butter. The theory is that the oil will “lubricate” your esophagus, reducing the friction holding your piece of food in place.
None of these tricks have worked for me, but they are safe and easy enough to try so worth a try.
Use a chopstick (carefully)
I started to worry about falling asleep with this thing stuck in the back of my throat and aspirating it , which meant I either had to try something drastic or go to the emergency room. (Here, I should point out that going to the emergency room is a much smarter thing to do, so this is my official advice if the tricks above don’t work. However, I’ve never been a sane person.) How could I literally see spinach in there . I figured all I had to do was manually manipulate the piece of green death and I would be free of my nightmare.
I couldn’t reach it with my finger (I considered the possibility that inducing vomiting might dislodge it, but I also considered the possibility that it wouldn’t, so I kept it in reserve). Instead, I grabbed a chopstick. With a flashlight in one hand and a chopstick in the other, watery eyes and a full gag reflex, I walked in like I was playing a Blumhouse version of Operation , and pushed a chunk of spinach aside. In a second, I was able to spit it out into the sink. sweet relief
Do I recommend the chopstick method? Not unconditionally. There are probably a dozen ways in which this could have gone wrong. But it worked. I avoided a trip to the emergency room and immediately felt 100% better. If this ever happens to you, as long as you can breathe normally, it’s best to relax and just keep swallowing, and treat yourself to soft foods and sodas. Most likely they will take care of it. Most importantly, if this has never happened to you, be sure to chew your food thoroughly so that this never happens.