Gas

The bacteria in the gut can produce still another source of toxicity. In addition to the "solid" toxins produced on site by the bacterial metabolism, increases in bacteria count also result in the production of a large amount of intestinal gases. Under normal conditions, some gas production will result regardless of the food eaten and the state of the digestion. In fact, the amount of gas normally produced in or delivered to the colon ranges from 7 to 10 liters each day. How­ever, the amount that gets passed through the anus is little more than a half liter. This is because over 90 percent of the gas formed in the digestive system is absorbed directly by the mucous lining of the intestine. Normally, this would not be a toxic process. However, when bacterial activity increases, especially with the emergence of the anaerobic forms mentioned earlier, the gases formed are toxic. Although the liver will help to detoxify the gas-absorbing blood that passes through the intestine, it will eventually become over­whelmed if the toxicity is not lessened through the proper digestion of good food.

One of the best-known intestinal gases is hydrogen sulfide (H2S), known for its "rotten egg" smell. H₂S, characterized in Dorland's Il­lustrated Medical Dictionary as "an offensive and poisonous gas," is one of the gases that are formed when the undesirable bacteria begin to predominate, and its foul smell makes it one of the sim­plest and most easily detected indicators of poor digestion. How­ever, few people realize that for whatever amount of foul-smelling gas they pass, almost ten times that amount gets absorbed into the body.