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The answer
may stink, but eating or drinking anything gives us gas. In fact, it's normal
to fart up to half of a gallon (1.9 liters), or about 15 to 20 toots worth of
gas, each day.
When we
gulp down food, air comes with it. So if a belch seems rude, remember that the
air has to leave our bodies one way or another.
Fragrant
flatulence, however, comes from colonies
of bacteria shacked up inside our lower intestinal tract (which is why it
can take hours for gas to kick in after a meal). In the process of converting
our meals into useful nutrients, these food-munching microbes produce a smelly
by-product of hydrogen sulfide gas—the same stench that emanates from rotten eggs.
Although
the gaseous response of bacteria to food differs from person to person (as
every one has a unique collection of their own), the biggest gas-generating
ingredients are sugars, especially the following four:
- Fructose – A natural ingredient in plants like onions, corn,
wheat and even pears. It's often concentrated into a sugary syrup for soft
drinks and fruit drinks.
- Lactose – Milk's sweet natural ingredient, also added to foods
like bread and cereal. Some people are born
with low levels of lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose, a
fact that inflates their gassy susceptibility.
- Raffinose – The secret gassy ingredient
in beans, which is also found in broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage,
asparagus and other vegetables. Products like Beano, designed to reduce
gas production, break down the sugar before it can reach eager intestinal
bacteria.
- Sorbitol – Found in almost all fruits, this indigestible sugar
is also used as an artificial sweetener in "diet" and sugar-free
foods. Yes, sugar-free gum, candy, soda and anything else deceptively
sweet can cause gas.
Other
fart-forming ingredients include fiber and starches found in foods like corn,
potatoes and wheat. While fats and protein don't cause gas, they can make a
meal take longer to digest—and give bacteria more time to generate gas from
other ingredients.
Just about
the only food that doesn't give us gas? Rice.
Fighting flatulence
takes trial and error to figure out which foods excite your
intestinal friends and cutting back on them. As a general rule, taking
anti-gas products like alpha-galactosidase (Beano) or lactase enzyme (Lactaid)
with problematic foods can curb some flatulence—simethicone (Gas-X) only helps
relieve bloating by passing gas faster.
Chronic
irritating or painful gas may signal something serious, however, so seeing a
gastrointestinal specialist is a good idea if this is the case.
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