1
00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:03,560
Speaker 1: Get smarter in sixty seconds with brain stuff from how

2
00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:08,560
Speaker 1: stuffworks dot com Hi Marshall Brain. What is happening when

3
00:00:08,600 --> 00:00:12,479
Speaker 1: we fart? We all suffer from this problem to varying degrees.

4
00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:16,080
Speaker 1: Where does the gas come from? Just think about your

5
00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:19,680
Speaker 1: digestive system for a moment. One thing that's obvious is

6
00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:24,680
Speaker 1: that digestion involves breaking things down. Everything in food has

7
00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:27,280
Speaker 1: to be broken down into small units in order to

8
00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:30,880
Speaker 1: enter the bloodstream. Protein must be broken down into its

9
00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:35,279
Speaker 1: individual amino acids, Fats must be broken down into fatty acids,

10
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:39,400
Speaker 1: and carbohydrates both simple and complex must be broken into

11
00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:44,280
Speaker 1: individual glucose molecules. Flagulence occurs when a food does not

12
00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:47,720
Speaker 1: break down completely in the stomach and the small intestine.

13
00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:50,839
Speaker 1: As a result, the food makes it to the large

14
00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:55,360
Speaker 1: intestine in an undigested state. For example, if you are

15
00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:59,840
Speaker 1: lactose intolerant, it means that you lack an enzyme lack

16
00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:05,199
Speaker 1: taste in your intestine. This enzyme breaks lactose apart into

17
00:01:05,240 --> 00:01:09,399
Speaker 1: two sugar molecules so they can enter the bloodstream without

18
00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:15,080
Speaker 1: lac taste. Lactose passes undigested through the stomach and small intestine,

19
00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:19,520
Speaker 1: and it arrives in the large intestine. They're the lactose

20
00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:24,520
Speaker 1: meets up with billions of hungry bacteria, the natural intestinal

21
00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:28,640
Speaker 1: fauna we all have in our large intestine. These bacteria

22
00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:32,920
Speaker 1: are happy to digest lactose. They produce a variety of

23
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:36,360
Speaker 1: gases in much the same way that yeast produces carbon

24
00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:41,160
Speaker 1: dioxide to leaven bread. Gases such as methane, hydrogen, and

25
00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:46,759
Speaker 1: hydrogen sulfide are common gases that these bacteria produce. Hydrogen

26
00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:51,360
Speaker 1: sulfide is the source of the odor we associate with flatulens.

27
00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:56,120
Speaker 1: Certain foods produce more flatulens than others because they contain

28
00:01:56,240 --> 00:02:01,440
Speaker 1: more undigestible carbohydrates than others. Being means, as you might expect,

29
00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:05,360
Speaker 1: are particularly well endowed in this regard. Do you have

30
00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:09,080
Speaker 1: any ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please

31
00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:11,800
Speaker 1: send me an email at podcast at how stuff works

32
00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,960
Speaker 1: dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,

33
00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,919
Speaker 1: go to how stuff works dot com.