Gabe Mirkin, M.D.
You're not alone if you suffer gas when you eat dairy
products, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, grains or cereals. The
gas is caused by bacteria in your gut fermenting sugars.
Carbohydrates are made of sugars either alone or in
combinations. They can be the single sugars, glucose and
fructose, found in fruit; the double sugar, lactose, found in dairy
products; thousands of sugars bound together called starch; or
millions of sugars bound together called fiber. Before any
carbohydrate can be absorbed from your intestines into your
bloodstream, it must be broken down into single sugars. If it
cannot be broken down into single sugars, it cannot be absorbed
and it passes into the lower intestinal tract where bacteria
ferment it to cause gas.
Half of the world's population develops cramping after
drinking milk because they lack the intestinal enzyme that is
necessary to break down the double sugar in milk called lactose.
These people can purchase the missing enzyme, called lactase
(in products such as Lactaid or milk that has lactase added), and
drink milk without discomfort. Or they can avoid dairy products.
All humans will have intestinal gas after they eat
significant quantities of many whole grains, beans or other
seeds. These foods contain triple, quadruple and quintuple
sugars and no human has the enzymes necessary to break them
down. You can de-gas beans by soaking before you cook them,
or you can use alpha-galactosidase products such as Bean-O,
which contain an enzyme that splits these complex sugars.
When you change your diet, you build up colonies of the
friendly bacteria gradually and the problem becomes less severe.
If you are not constipated, a moderate amount of gas is not
uncomfortable and is perfectly normal. However, some people
still get unreasonable amounts of gas, even after several weeks
of adjustment to the new diet. These people may be helped by
taking Cipro 500 mg twice a day and metronidazole 250 mg four
times a day for one week. Check with your doctor.
February 1, 2006