camote-sweet potato gas syndrom

Many years ago, when cell phones were just beginning to be popular, I was attending a lecture by a foreign author at the Meralco Theatre. The lecturer was already there. The facilitator then announced. Please put all your cell phones off. A minute or two there was an incoming text message and the old fashion sound of a cell phone that disturbed the very quite hall. Then another minute followed a louder than usual release of intestinal gas,prrrttt, fart, yes a fart. The theatre was very quite as the facilitator again pleaded "Also please silence or close your gas tank." Followed by a lively laughter. A couple seated near me commented, "siguro maraming kinaing camote." May be he ate more servings of sweet potato. Is it true that when you eat more servings of camote (sweet potato) you would heap up extra strong-smelling gas in the large intestine? And then out is a fart. Believe it or not about 50 percent of 90 million Filipinos say so. Yet if you ask them they could not prove. So the camote-related gas tank syndrome could just be a Pinoy saying. Why the lowly sweet potato? In America before the GreatDepression in the 1920s the sweet potato was a staple food. But as the Americans became richer their menu changed. The popularity of the camote declined. The reason for the decline could be that sweet potato as food was associated with the bad times. When the Americans came to the Philipppines, the Pinoys merely parroted the new style associating the lowly camote as food during bad times Today it is high time we put the camote-gas tank issue to rest. Because there is no truth or proof that eating camote is associated with the bad times nor the primary cause of the gas tank syndrome. Sweet potato, camote is a very nutritious food. For every piece taken one gets substantial amounts of complex carbohyrates, magnesium, calcium, potassium, beta carotene, B vitamins, Vitamin A C and iron. Nutritionists recommend camote even to diabitics, despite being sweet because it stabilizes blood sugar levels and lower insulin resistance. No wonder even Oprah Winfrey of the famous American television advocates more consumption. Philippine sweet potato could be even better than the common white potato used in commercial french fries in popular food chains, because it cause no skin allergy, unlike the common white potato which cause skin allergy to some people. What then cause the gas tank to explode, the fart that stinks even in public? Farting as one webcite noted is a product of digestion. Anything we eat must be digested to its tiniest molecules so that this can be absorbed by the small intestine and enter the bloodstream. In the stomach foods are broken down such as the proteins into amino acids, fats into fatty acids and carbohydrates into glucose so tha they may be absorb by the small intestine through the intestinal walls. The foods that could not be absorbed by the small intestine will go down to the large intestine for more attempts of liquid reabsorption and the rests will go to wastes as bowels. The large intestine is home to hundred types of harmless bacteria These bacteria live and get their food in the large intestine. Some of these bacteria are the so-called probiotics, lacto bacillus which help in preventing the growth of bad bacteria. However some of these bacteria are gas-forming. These gases are harmless and odorless, such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen and methane. It is only when some of these gases contained hydrogen sulfide that the smell stench. To reduce if not avoid the bad smell avoid eating sulfur-rich food such as: alcohol, preserved meat products, dried fruits that is processed using sulfur dioxide. Accumulation of more gas in the stomach may be also caused by vigorous chewing and swallowing. So gentlemen of the Augas Chamber do not be afraid of the gas tank revolution, let us give a helping hand to our poor sweet potato farmers. Let us consume more sweet potatos because of its nutrative value and not because of its alleged and unproven gas emission. # mel t 0