Burping, farting, bloating, diarrhea:
We all experience these things.
Some may know exactly what foods are causing them
these problems, but others may not.
Sure, generic lists on Google may help,
but they're not personal or quantifiable enough.
This device, called FoodMarble Aire, may give you
a clearer idea of exactly what foods
are causing your discomfort.
My digestive problems include...
Feeling gassy all the time.
Constipation.
Sharp pains in my stomach.
IBS.
And also
violent
diarrhea.
So what exactly is this device?
James: FoodMarble Aire is a breath-analysis device that
tracks a specific kind of digestion called fermentation.
And fermentation's a healthy part of digestion,
but sometimes too much fermentation from certain foods
can cause symptoms in a lot of people.
Bloating, pain, gas, and even diarrhea.
My stomach does not respond well to things like
onions and garlic.
Meat or oily foods.
Brussels sprouts.
If it says "sugar-free," I know I shouldn't have it.
If I eat an apple, game over.
And avocados, sadly.
James: Fermentable oligosaccharide,
disaccharide, monosaccharide,
and polyols.
It's a fancy word that means some complex carbohydrates
and not carbs like we think of like bread.
FODMAPs are found in all kinds of
fruits, dairy, vegetables, grains,
and these nutrients, while very healthy,
if they're not absorbed properly in certain people,
this fermentation causes a lot of the symptoms
that people experience.
I don't know exactly what I'm reacting to.
It could be gluten. It could be dairy.
So hopefully this test will help me figure that out.
James: So there's two general ways that
people can use this device.
One, you can use it in your regular, everyday use.
You can track your foods, track your symptoms,
and then you take several breaths throughout the day,
and then with our app's food database, we can tell you
which foods contain higher and lower amounts of FODMAPs.
The second way that people could use the app
is that we optionally provide pure samples of FODMAPs.
You mix it into a little bit of water,
and then for three hours while you have
an empty digestive system, except for this one FODMAP,
we can test you and see if you're fermenting
a lot from this.
It's day one of this experiment.
I got some teriyaki chicken.
I got noodle soup.
Gene: Are you excited?
Uh, yeah, we're gonna learn things.
Yeah, let's do this.
Let's figure out what's causing our digestive problems.
So my first week using Aire has been pretty interesting.
So it felt like the device was accurately measuring
my activity in the stomach.
My fermentation levels are really high after I've had
pizza and pita chips and hummus.
One of the surprising results I got was when I went to
Chipotle last week. I purposely stacked my bowl with like
dairy products, and then I did my breath test probably
about a half an hour later, and my fermentation score
actually decreased from the morning.
I would eat the almonds, and this past week I've been
recording it, and my fermentation score
has been really high.
So we asked why that might be happening, and it turns out
that almonds are low FODMAP only in smaller quantities,
which I have a problem with portion control.
Gene: When I eat meat with vegetables,
it was actually fine. The levels would show a low indicator.
But when I would eat meat with bread, like a sandwich
or a hamburger, the levels were high.
So when you first download the app, it does tell you
not to use the breath tests while you're drinking.
But I was still curious to see what it says,
and my readings were like 10 out of 10,
like off-the-charts red.
But that does let me know that the app is working.
I tried the inulin elimination diet.
I didn't even know such thing existed before this.
I came in thinking that meat is the main problem in my diet,
but it turned out that it wasn't necessarily meat.
It was the things that I ate with meat,
like bread, garlic, and onion.
So going forward, I'm gonna eat less almonds and
definitely work on portion control.
I think I just will prepare for suffering
whenever I have these foods that I love
but know that my body doesn't react well to.
I think I would recommend this device.
Although it didn't necessarily give me the answers
that I wanted, I think it would be really helpful
for someone who definitely has an intolerance to lactose
or one of those four pillars
and so that they can get a pretty solid answer
on what they should avoid to eat.
Unfortunately, breath analysis is
limited to fermentation-related issues.
So if breath analysis and fermentation are not their cause
of their problems, they should see a dietician,
a healthcare professional, a gastroenterologist
for further analysis that can help their issues.
Michelle: So be like,
"This is Gene the farting machine."
All right, you give me the cue.