2376 Gas Ratings

I get most of my news at the Google news page. As I know they're tailoring it to my preferences I make a special effort to sample the news delicacies from many different sources, hoping by that strategy to make sure I'm staying in touch.

Online news headline writing has evolved to encourage folks to click on a particular story, using intriguing words and then making sure it tails off after a few words so you have to click the link just to get the whole headline.

So I was worried about the trends Google would try to establish yet intrigued enough to click the link when I saw the headline, "Nine things you didn't know about farts." I prefer the term flatulence but as I'm reporting the facts here I believe I'm allowed the fleeting use of the word fart.

Anyhow, according to researcher and Gastroenterologist Purna Kashyap, poofs are a very normal part of the digestive process in that they're a healthy result of your gut microbiome digesting carbohydrates and making various nutrients available to your body. The bacteria doing the digesting give off gas as a byproduct. 

They digest mostly complex carbohydrates. And outgas a certain normal volume in a 24-hour period. One of the interesting factoids discovered is that an average human flatates about a liter and half of gas a day. Compare that to a 2 liter bottle of Mountain Dew. 

Another interesting fartoid is that 99% of said flatulence is odorless.  It's only when you eat sulfur-containing food like beans and broccoli that elevator sharing becomes a dangerous event. The noxious smell comes from the hydrogen sulfide our bacterial friends produce. 

BTW --This was all tested by having research subjects wear gas-tight Mylar pantaloons. 

Science is a gas.

America, ya gotta love it.