WEBVTT - Do Vegetarians' Farts Smell Worse?

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:07.040
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works. Hey, they're

0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:10.360
<v Speaker 1>brain stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. It's as Bart Simpson

0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:13.680
<v Speaker 1>once said, beans beans the musical fruit. The more you eat,

0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:16.720
<v Speaker 1>the more you toot. Beans have a reputation as a

0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.160
<v Speaker 1>musical fruit, But for all their noisiness, they don't usually

0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.239
<v Speaker 1>make farts smell worse. The same is true for most

0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:27.040
<v Speaker 1>flatulens causing foods, such as asparagus or chickpeas. They may

0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.280
<v Speaker 1>make you fart more often, but they don't make your

0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:34.960
<v Speaker 1>farts particularly stinky. Sure, a vegetarians diet based on nuts, fruit, vegetables,

0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.199
<v Speaker 1>and lagoons is rich in fiber, but fiber alone is

0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:40.960
<v Speaker 1>not to blame for the increased gas production that comes

0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.240
<v Speaker 1>with plant based eating habits. The culprit is actually a

0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:48.319
<v Speaker 1>type of sugar molecule called oligo saccharides. Oligo saccharides are

0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.479
<v Speaker 1>too large to be easily absorbed through the wall of

0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:53.320
<v Speaker 1>the small intestine, so they move through the large intestines

0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:56.880
<v Speaker 1>unfettered until they meet some of these seventy plus kinds

0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.400
<v Speaker 1>of bacteria that live there. As these bacteria east on

0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:04.680
<v Speaker 1>the all ego saccharides, they create an abundance of gassy byproducts.

0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:09.200
<v Speaker 1>Colloquially speaking, the bacteria fart and you fart out their farts.

0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:12.480
<v Speaker 1>While the jury is still out on weather vegetarians fart

0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:16.240
<v Speaker 1>more often than omnivores. There is evidence that vegetarian farts

0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:19.960
<v Speaker 1>may be among the least noxious, or not as noxious

0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.880
<v Speaker 1>as a meat eaters farts. Anyway, the credit for smelly

0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:25.520
<v Speaker 1>farts goes in part to meat that is consumed as

0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.360
<v Speaker 1>part of an omnivorous diet. For the most part, meat

0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:32.119
<v Speaker 1>contains high levels of sulfur and sulfur. Latin foods produce

0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.640
<v Speaker 1>more odors as they're digested. When bacteria in the digestive

0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.120
<v Speaker 1>system break down foods, it produces all kinds of byproducts

0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:42.119
<v Speaker 1>when they break down foods rich in sulfur. The byproducts

0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:46.520
<v Speaker 1>include sulfides and mercantons, the gases that lend their unmistakable

0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.600
<v Speaker 1>smell to farts. Hydrogen sulfide in particular, causes past gas

0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:53.560
<v Speaker 1>to have an odor reminiscent of rotten eggs. The other

0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:57.920
<v Speaker 1>gases produced during digestion, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and methane,

0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:03.360
<v Speaker 1>are virtually odorless. By contrast, most vegetables produce fewer smelly byproducts.

0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.280
<v Speaker 1>During digestion. But don't think that if you don't eat

0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.359
<v Speaker 1>meat you'll never have smelly farts. Any food that is

0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:13.680
<v Speaker 1>high in sulfites, such as cabbage, broccoli, onions, brussels sprouts, peas, leaks,

0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:18.000
<v Speaker 1>and garlic, will result in sulfide and mercatin rich gas production.

0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:21.760
<v Speaker 1>So even though omnivores and vegetarians may not have much

0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:23.880
<v Speaker 1>in common when it comes to selecting a main dish

0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:26.440
<v Speaker 1>off the menu, they can raise their forks and unity

0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.720
<v Speaker 1>at the wonders of gut bacteria. Regardless of what we eat,

0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:33.080
<v Speaker 1>we all fart, and sometimes it's smellier because of what

0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:41.079
<v Speaker 1>we've eaten. Today's episode was written by Laurie L. Dove

0:02:41.160 --> 0:02:43.760
<v Speaker 1>and produced by Tristan McNeil. For more on this and

0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.560
<v Speaker 1>lots of other completely dignified topics, visit our home planet,

0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:59.079
<v Speaker 1>how stuff Works dot com