Shouldn’t more thorough digestion from a gut biome result in more carbon dioxide production? Why does incomplete digestion of lactose and fructose and whatever’s in onions result in bloating and gas?
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The enzyme is lacked by your body so it doesn’t get broken down earlier in your gut where it can be absorbed and metabolized within your body. Instead it continues on to later stages with bacteria that *does* have the enzyme, and when they metabolize it they produce a lot of gas. Both ways it gets broken down and metabolized, it just differs on when in the gut that happens and if it is by your own cells or those of bacteria.
The key is that lack of enzyme only = incomplete digestion of lactose *by you*.
That means more lactose making it through into your intestines and becoming food for all the intestinal bacteria who can digest it just fine. These bacteria have a field day with the extra food supply of intact lactose reaching them, and they eat and multiply like crazy.
All that gas is bacteria farts, not the product of you yourself digesting the lactose.
The enzyme is lacked by your body so it doesn’t get broken down earlier in your gut where it can be absorbed and metabolized within your body. Instead it continues on to later stages with bacteria that *does* have the enzyme, and when they metabolize it they produce a lot of gas. Both ways it gets broken down and metabolized, it just differs on when in the gut that happens and if it is by your own cells or those of bacteria.
The key is that lack of enzyme only = incomplete digestion of lactose *by you*.
That means more lactose making it through into your intestines and becoming food for all the intestinal bacteria who can digest it just fine. These bacteria have a field day with the extra food supply of intact lactose reaching them, and they eat and multiply like crazy.
All that gas is bacteria farts, not the product of you yourself digesting the lactose.
If you have your own lactase, lactose is broken into simpler sugars, and then those sugars pass through your intestinal wall into your blood before bacteria can reach them. When your cells eventually burn those sugars for energy, you breathe out the resulting carbon dioxide.
If you don’t have your own lactase, bacteria in your gut supply the lactase to break down lactose, so they get to burn the simple sugars for energy. When bacteria in your gut make carbon dioxide by burning sugar, they don’t have a way to send it to your lungs, so it builds up in your gut and makes you sick.
If you have your own lactase, lactose is broken into simpler sugars, and then those sugars pass through your intestinal wall into your blood before bacteria can reach them. When your cells eventually burn those sugars for energy, you breathe out the resulting carbon dioxide.
If you don’t have your own lactase, bacteria in your gut supply the lactase to break down lactose, so they get to burn the simple sugars for energy. When bacteria in your gut make carbon dioxide by burning sugar, they don’t have a way to send it to your lungs, so it builds up in your gut and makes you sick.
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