barger@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu (Jorn Barger) (05/22/91)
Settle a bet here: The local health food store is now carrying a pricey little bottle of enzymes called "Beano" that you dripple onto your baked beans etc, to prevent... flatulence. (Beg pardon!) Now I remember hearing somewhere that the sugars in beans, etc were indigestible because they were stereoisomers/mirror images of the usual sugars. My pal-who-hasn't- won-one-yet says nature abhors an enantiomorph, and that no biological molecule exists in nature in both forms. Anybody know for sure? (Gotta run...!) ================================================================== "If a therapist doesn't dive down to meet the Wild Man or Wild Woman, he or she will try to heal with words. The healing energy stored in waterfalls, trees, clay, horses, dogs, porcupines, llamas, otters belong to the domain of the Wild People. Therapists will have understood this when they insist on doing therapy with a cow in the room." Robert Bly _Iron John_ ==================================================================
mikem@travis.ssd.csd.harris.com (Mike McCole) (05/24/91)
In article <1806@anaxagoras.ils.nwu.edu> barger@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu (Jorn Barger) writes: >Settle a bet here: The local health food store is now carrying a pricey >little bottle of enzymes called "Beano" that you dripple onto your baked >beans etc, to prevent... flatulence. (Beg pardon!) Now I remember hearing >somewhere that the sugars in beans, etc were indigestible because they >were stereoisomers/mirror images of the usual sugars. My pal-who-hasn't- >won-one-yet says nature abhors an enantiomorph, and that no biological >molecule exists in nature in both forms. Anybody know for sure? (Gotta Look up fructose and levulose in a quant chem book.
larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) (05/25/91)
In article <1806@anaxagoras.ils.nwu.edu> barger@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu (Jorn Barger) writes: >Settle a bet here: The local health food store is now carrying a pricey >little bottle of enzymes called "Beano" that you dripple onto your baked >beans etc, to prevent... flatulence. (Beg pardon!) Now I remember hearing >somewhere that the sugars in beans, etc were indigestible because they >were stereoisomers/mirror images of the usual sugars. My pal-who-hasn't- >won-one-yet says nature abhors an enantiomorph, and that no biological >molecule exists in nature in both forms. Anybody know for sure? Beans contain significant quantities of oligosaccharides, which cannot be directly absorbed by the small intestine without the aid of enzymes. In general, without enzymes humans cannot digest oligosaccharides and polysaccharides of a form other than with a-1,4 linkages. Sucrose, as an example, cannot undergo absorption without the aid of the enzyme sucrase, which catalyzes its hydrolysis to d-glucose. Excess oligosaccharides (which do not undergo hydrolysis as above) as found in beans undergo fermentation in the small intestine, producing carbon dioxide and hydrogen as gaseous products. These gaseous products form the basis for flatus. Since the ability of humans to produce the enzymes necessary for oligosaccharide hydrolysis varies, consumption of beans has a different effect in different people. The "Beano" product probably contains such enzymes as sucrase, maltase, isomaltase, etc. Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. "Have you hugged your cat today?" VOICE: 716/688-1231 {boulder, rutgers, watmath}!ub!kitty!larry FAX: 716/741-9635 [note: ub=acsu.buffalo.edu] uunet!/ \aerion!larry