Apr 4, 2025 03:28 AM
Odor-wise, you can definitely tell when someone is a heavy meat eater, without enough non-bean vegetable and fruit matter consumption to counteract the inevitable results.
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How your smelly farts can tell you what’s going on in your gut
https://theconversation.com/how-your-sme...gut-252845
EXCERPTS: However uncomfortable or embarrassing they are, farts are natural and a sign that your digestive system is alive. Quite literally, actually. It’s not just your own body that’s responsible for producing gases. Trillions of microbes live in your gut, helping you digest your food – and producing farts in the process.
Our gut microbes play an indispensable role in our health. This is why it’s so important to take good care of them. And, bizarre as it might sound, the smell of your farts can actually tell you something about what’s keeping your gut microbes busy.
[...] There’s a correlation between what you eat, how much gas your belly creates and how the gas smells. This is because each food affects your body and your gut microbes differently.
For instance, hydrogen sulphide – the smelliest of the gases our gut microbes make – can only be produced if your food contains sulphur. Sulphur is typically found in the amino acids cysteine and methionine, which are part of proteins. There are generally higher levels of these amino acids in animal proteins (such as eggs and red meat) than in plant proteins.
In general, proteins are more likely to produce malodorous gas because they contribute to a process called putrefaction – the fermentation of excess protein in the large intestine. This same process makes those extra-stinky indole and skatole molecules. So, too much protein fermentation can cause foul smells – and is also linked to negative health effects, such as ulcerative colitis and bowel cancer.
But don’t worry, there’s no need to cut out proteins altogether. Your body actually needs them.
You might also have noticed that fibre-rich foods, such as beans, make you gassy. Fibres cause more gas production because our body lacks the capacity to break down fibre by itself. This means that all the fibre we ingest will reach our large intestine, where the microbes do the heavy lifting of breaking them down into health-promoting volatile fatty acids. Fortunately, fibre-rich foods are mainly associated with the production of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, our non-smelly intestinal gases... (MORE - missing details)
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How your smelly farts can tell you what’s going on in your gut
https://theconversation.com/how-your-sme...gut-252845
EXCERPTS: However uncomfortable or embarrassing they are, farts are natural and a sign that your digestive system is alive. Quite literally, actually. It’s not just your own body that’s responsible for producing gases. Trillions of microbes live in your gut, helping you digest your food – and producing farts in the process.
Our gut microbes play an indispensable role in our health. This is why it’s so important to take good care of them. And, bizarre as it might sound, the smell of your farts can actually tell you something about what’s keeping your gut microbes busy.
[...] There’s a correlation between what you eat, how much gas your belly creates and how the gas smells. This is because each food affects your body and your gut microbes differently.
For instance, hydrogen sulphide – the smelliest of the gases our gut microbes make – can only be produced if your food contains sulphur. Sulphur is typically found in the amino acids cysteine and methionine, which are part of proteins. There are generally higher levels of these amino acids in animal proteins (such as eggs and red meat) than in plant proteins.
In general, proteins are more likely to produce malodorous gas because they contribute to a process called putrefaction – the fermentation of excess protein in the large intestine. This same process makes those extra-stinky indole and skatole molecules. So, too much protein fermentation can cause foul smells – and is also linked to negative health effects, such as ulcerative colitis and bowel cancer.
But don’t worry, there’s no need to cut out proteins altogether. Your body actually needs them.
You might also have noticed that fibre-rich foods, such as beans, make you gassy. Fibres cause more gas production because our body lacks the capacity to break down fibre by itself. This means that all the fibre we ingest will reach our large intestine, where the microbes do the heavy lifting of breaking them down into health-promoting volatile fatty acids. Fortunately, fibre-rich foods are mainly associated with the production of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, our non-smelly intestinal gases... (MORE - missing details)