If your farts smell so bad, you may have to change your diet. Apparently, some food causes our farts to be more potent, and scientists were able to identify the culprit.
Farts are produced when a mix of swallowed air finds its way into your digestive system while breathing, which then causes gas to be produced by the bacteria in your lower intestine. The breakdown of sugars and starches that your body has trouble digesting create gas.
Cysteine, Which Is Mainly Found In Meat, Dairy, And Eggs, Cause Bad-Smelling Farts
In order to understand why farts smell, researchers from the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia conducted an experiment by mixing feces with different nutritional components to find out what contributes to the bad smell, Mirror reported. They found that the reason why some gas can clear a room in an instant is because it contains cysteine.
According to Metro, cysteine, which is mainly found in meat, dairy, eggs and other types of protein, increases the amount of hydrogen sulfide gas in your stomach by seven-fold. This gas makes your fart smell bad. Chu Yao, one of the authors of the study, said: "This explains why bodybuilders who consume lots of protein powder are known to have smelly farts."
Eat Starchy Foods To Avoid Smelly Farts
Yao said that there is a way to combat anti-social farts. Starchy foods act as a resistant to hydrogen sulfide gas - by up to 75 percent. If you want to avoid getting smelly farts, here's what you need to eat: potatoes, bananas, legumes, cereals, artichokes, asparagus, and fructans, which are commonly found in wheat.
These foods are highly fermentable, meaning, they are broken down before the proteins. "The focus is taken away from the protein, so hydrogen sulfide is not produced," Yao added. Results of the study were presented at a Gastroenterological Society of Australia conference in Adelaide.
