How Do We Produce Gas and Farts?

Gas fills our small intestine, stomach, and colon. Farts occur when a buildup of gas in the digestive system releases through our butts.

Certain foods create gas within your body. Aside from beans, other foods that make us fart include onions, garlic, milk, broccoli, and kale. Fructose sugar found in fruits like apples, mangos, and pears also causes gas.

Another reason is simply swallowing air. When we engage in regular activities like sleeping and breathing, we swallow air. All the swallowed air gets trapped in our digestive system and releases as a fart.

Did you know that humans can fart 12 to 25 times a day? Farting is a normal and natural part of your amazing digestive system. When you eat, you swallow food along with air, which contains gases like nitrogen and oxygen. Small amounts of these gases travel through your digestive system as you digest your food.

Other gases like hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane form when food breaks down in the large intestine. All of these gases in the digestive system have to escape somehow, so they come out as farts!

Gases also make farts smell bad. Tiny amounts of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane combine with hydrogen sulfide and ammonia in the large intestine to give gas its smell. Intestinal gas is totally normal, and it’s very rare for farting to signal that something is wrong in the body.

And don’t forget that farting can sometimes indicate to your body that it’s time to take a trip to the bathroom. The bathroom is also a good place to go if you’re feeling particularly gassy because it’s not polite to fart in social settings, like in class or at the dinner table. But don’t worry if this happens accidentally. Just remember to say “excuse me”!

Content for this question contributed by John Merion, resident of Milliken, Weld County, Colorado, USA