What's in a Fart?
By Robert LatkanyDecember 13, 2009
When I was growing up, my teenage brothers and I were always on high alert to detect each other's farts. When we heard or smelled one, we cried foul, and ribbed each other mercilessly. Sometimes, to avoid embarrassment, we passed one off by pretending that we had stubbed a toe, creaked a chair, or coughed or sneezed. A fart, otherwise known as flatulence, was our own f-word.
But flatulence is entirely natural. And yes, beans do make you toot. An evaluation of healthy volunteers who consumed their regular diet with an added serving of 200 grams of baked beans resulted in a range of 476 to 1491 ml of gas per day according to Tomlin et al. The majority of gas was hydrogen and carbon dioxide with a minority also expelling some methane. Men and women released the same amount of gas. Most of the farting took place after a meal and was more common during the day then during sleep. A fiber-free diet significantly reduces the volume of gas.
Low density carbohydrates (LDCs) such as some types of fiber, resistant starch, and sugar alcohols that become partially fermented in the gut are increasingly found in processed foods because they are not absorbed as much in the gut thereby reducing your caloric intake and has the added benefit of not changing your blood sugar levels by much. Good selling points. However, as these LDCs remain in your gut, Grabitske and colleague point out that they increase your likelihood of having bloating, diarrhea and you guessed it, flatulence. So as our processed food level is increasing by the day, are we all walking time bombs? Grabitske and colleague clarify that this may be the case considering there are no guidelines of limits of LDC intake.
Before we all run to the store and buy chemical laden air fresheners, there is another option to consider. Kalman et al determined that Bacilus coagulans (A probiotic Digestive Advantage Gas Defense Formula) reduced bloating, pain and flatulence scores when compared to placebo, although placebo had positive results as well. Further studies are needed to elucidate the benefits of probiotics on flatulence. While we wait on better guidelines on how much LDCs we should consume, a good rule of thumb is to get our fiber from actual foods, like fruits and vegetables, rather than from processed food-like substances.
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