Poof...

Kurt worked hard to reel me back in from reality by providing a terrific example of Ztuff...

A fellow named Stephen G. Bloom ¹ wrote an article for Salon about farting called Dr. Fart speaks some years back.

Yes, it most certainly is that kind of article. But it has a serious side as well. We all fart, all the time... there are reasons why. Many accidental biological emissions are accepted (tears, laughter, a cough ²) by society while others are flatly rejected (do not vomit on or around other humans is a good example).

According to one Dr. Michael D. Levitt, we Americans feel a bit obsessive about ³ farting. So he has spent a lifetime researching the subject and we get a nice encapsulated view.

Gassy food is gassy food for everyone, says Levitt, with a crucial caveat. Some people are able to absorb and tolerate the gas they produce better than others. The single most gas-producing food for most everyone, Levitt says, is -- no surprise -- baked beans. The musical fruit is made up entirely of simple carbohydrates, which are not absorbed in the intestines. Once inside the intestines, the sludge that was once beans is broken down by bacteria and enzymes, and then ferments. In that process, the thick, gooey substance can produce potent gases that have nowhere to go but down -- and out, thank goodness.

and...

Out is important. While Levitt says he has never treated someone who held a fart in too long, there are dangerous side effects (including dizziness and headaches). Your colon becomes bloated, and theoretically, the methane and other lethal gases could add enough toxins to your blood to poison you. Levitt does not recommend holding in farts.

This is what and who we are, even if we choose to run away from it.

¹ At that time (early 2000) Stephen G. Bloom taught medical reporting at the University of Iowa. Now?

² The social acceptance of coughing could change, very quickly. Evolution by law has already happened (how else did we get past the plagues and where do practices of banishment come from?) and will again. Law is the civilized answer to our somewhat distant ancestors laws of the fittest. Darwin saw clearly that humans had already evolved and backtracked that idea...

³ I'm guessing that he refers to our views on cleanliness which most of the world thinks a little weird... but what else are we going to do with all the personal hygiene products we sell? Eat 'em? Or maybe he just meant obsessive this way.