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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
So you know how I love my musical apparatus for our chats, Norman?
Yes.
I've got my med diet bell here on the desk with me today. I forgot to bring my harmonica and my xylophone because I'm an idiot, but I did bring an extra new friend. Would you like to hear it?
Yes, I think I do. You're a rooty girl.
It's a whoopee cushion. We bought it especially for this particular episode of What's That? Rash.
where we answer the health questions everybody's got. And this time we were farting in front of a live audience.
That's right. This chat comes from our recent live show at World Science Festival Brisbane. So this question came from John, who the question itself was read out by a lovely audience member at our live show.
I am moved to ask a question of my own. We are urged to eat lots of fibre to nourish the gut microbiome. Is flatulence a sign that the gut biome is well fed and happy? And will a happy gut biome really improve one's cognitive function?
John, you've asked that question so well. I'm going to give you a round of applause.
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Chapter 2: Is flatulence a sign that the gut biome is well fed and happy?
A litre and a half of air. The biggest farts are produced over half a litre of hydrogen, which I think could be some sort of renewable energy source. The thing that really caught my attention, though, is that the smelly components of the fart were quite small.
So together, hydrogen sulphide, methane ethyol, which smells like rotten cabbage, and the garlic-like dimethyl sulphide, on average, were just 50 parts per million of each fart.
And only a third of them were really stenchy farters, weren't they?
Stenchy farters. I think that you are foreshadowing research that we will get to. But before we get to legitimate research, I have to introduce you to the Invisible College of Experimental Flatology, which is a website that exists. When I first saw flatology, I was like, oh, is this some sort of flat earth society? No, it's the ology, the study of flatulence.
And they've done some... Well, look, I don't know if the research is real. I don't really care. The charts are... The FART charts are amazing. Let's look at one, please. This... If you have very quickly decoded this chart, I'm very, very impressed.
But basically, for those who haven't and for those who are listening without the benefit of visuals, what you're looking at here is the rate of farts at a dinner party. And you'll notice that there's a particular peak at the time of the evening where the ladies leave the table.
LAUGHTER
They looked at the air quality during this time. So that's a little bit of a data point that you can drop around the dinner table, so to speak. So part of the question from John, who had such a beautiful voice, was about the microbiome. So we've talked a bit about what farts are, and I am very intentionally using the Germanic root here. We're not fancy. We're among friends.
What about the macrobiome?
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