Everyone has their own preferences, whether they prefer to swallow… or chew, how they like to eat/drink their boba is completely up to them. However, like when consuming any other type of foods, it would certainly be far more beneficial to chew your tapioca balls.
This should really go without saying, but clearly there are still some of you out there that don’t understand so let me say this one more time — yes, you should absolutely chew your boba, it would be barbaric not to.
Let me explain. As much as we all adore our milk tea and boba, we should also be aware that it’s not exactly a healthy beverage. Those sugary, chewy tapioca pearls we just can’t get enough of also contain very high levels of sugar; they have been boiled, then saturated with sugar, after all. In fact just ¼ cup of these pearls can easily put on an extra 100 calories to your milk tea.
In addition, these pearls are essentially all carbs with no minerals, vitamins, fiber, or basically anything that could actually be beneficial to your health. So while a boba tea every once in a while is relatively harmless, having this treat regularly could certainly have a negative effect, even more so if you choose to just swallow the boba instead of chewing it first.
First of all, if you fail to chew your food properly in general, your digestive system will not be able to break this down, possibly leading to bloating, stomachaches and ultimately slowing down the overall digestive process. Also, not being funny, you could end up possibly choking on these balls.
Doctors have also previously warned that the pearls in bubble tea, which are often made from starch, can also contain additives such as thickeners and preservatives which are already difficult for the body to digest and break down. According to The Paper, excessive and continuous consumption of milk tea containing boba could lead to gastrointestinal dysfunction.
Take, for example, this 14-year-old girl from China who was hospitalized after suffering from severe constipation lasting for five days. After complaining of being unable to eat or move her bowels and experiencing painful stomachaches, the teenager was found to have large amounts of undigested boba pearls in her stomach after doctors ordered a CT scan.
This story should be a learning lesson for us all, especially those who refuse to chew their boba. Hopefully, the boba-swallowing community will change their habits for the sake of their own health and wellbeing. For those unwilling to change, I hate to be harsh but even my dog knows to chew her food, so should you.
