September 2, 2013 • 30 mins
Cristen and Caroline get down to the stinky science and gender differences of passing gas because, like it or not, everybody farts.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to stuff Mom Never told you From House top
works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Caroline and Kristen. Kristen. When you ever so delicately suggested
that we tackle the subject of parting in the podcast,
I was not super excited. I started reading about farts
(00:27):
and had that look on my face the whole time,
just like, but you don't want. The more I've read
about farts, I have come to love them. You've come
around to love farts. Yeah, not not you know, the
smelling of others farts, but just the idea of them.
And they're very colorful, tooty, fruity history. Yeah, and their
(00:49):
strange role in society. And yes, friends, the gender dynamics
of farts, which we will get to. Um and I mean,
how long have humans have been farting? Humans have been
farting as long as humans have existed, and so the record,
the historical record of farts and and and just f y.
(01:12):
I people, this is a safe for all audiences podcast.
We are gonna be talking about farting and pouting and
cutting the cheese. But you know what, everybody does it.
We all do it, so so keep keep on listening.
Why don't you. Um. Let's go back though to for
TBC Room and guys Patronius who wrote, take my word
(01:35):
for it, friends, the vapors go straight to your brain,
poison your whole system. Yeah. Man. People were terrified of
the effect, the potential effect of gas trapped in your system.
Sir Thomas Moore in the sixteenth century said wind, if
(01:56):
kept too long in your stomach, killed you. Yeah. Um.
Mary Roach in her book Gulp talks about how in
the early twentieth century there were all these quacks who
basically said, you would better clean out your intestines because
you know, if you're not giving yourself colonics and and douching, etcetera,
(02:19):
then all those vapors inside of you will make you
very sick. Yeah. I mean the the advertising that went
into this, that the packaging and the marketing and everything
for these items is crazy. Like they were basically, they
were just stopping short of saying that it will kill
you if you don't clean your poop out of yourself
and make sure that you don't, you know, trap gas
(02:41):
in your system. Although maybe to give the quacks a
tiny shred of of understanding, holding in a fart for
too long for an extended period of time can cause
some stomach disruption, a little bit of discomfort. Jim Dawson,
who wrote the book Who Cut the Cheese, A Cultural
(03:02):
History of the Fart. Yeah, these are the kinds of
books the Carolina and I get to read. Um. He
writes about how gas trapped in your colon can cause
severe pains in your chest and arms, like a heart attack,
so watch out for that. Yeah. So people might have
thought that, you know, a fart was killing them. So
but but why do we call a fart of fart? Carolina?
(03:23):
Is it an automatopeia or what's called is an acronym? Well,
I love the atomology of this. The word fart actually
comes from the Old English Verton to fart invert a fart,
and about six hundred years ago the pronunciation shifted to hurt.
Oh wait, oh I got the fairy shifted to fert
(03:48):
um and fart. The actual word fart first appeared in
a poem from around twelve fifty. Yeah. One thing that
I was surprised to find in our fart research was
how how much scholarship has been done, not so much
on the science of farts, although that definitely exists. But
on the instances of farting in romantic literature, I don't
(04:10):
have all of the examples, but it's uh and I
have a feeling that probably the context of fart in
that twelve fifty poem has to do with someone wooing
someone else in a fart, either getting in the way
or being the the gatekeeper. You know what. I think
it was animal romance. It was something like the buck
(04:32):
jumps and some other animal farts. Yeah, yeah, which is
I mean, these magnificent beasts fartes, fartes on your face off,
furts it furts? Um. Well, the word fart disappeared from
from popular literature in the nineteenth century, which is no
surprise if you're a regular podcast listener. You know, those
(04:52):
people in the nineteenth century were um polite. They were
very polite. Jim Dawson, who cut the cheese, actually mentions
how Victorian women would rustle their bustles of their full
dresses if they had to fart. I mean, I'm I
don't know how that's verified, but it just makes sense.
Maybe somebody in some letter wrote to her her cousin
(05:15):
and was like, oh, dear, wrestling the vessel, But you
mean Obviously, fart has re emerged in more common language today,
but it's still not a polite term. I mean, the
fact that we're dedicating an entire episode to farts does
feel at the outset a little bit juvenile, because who
talks about farts and polite company or who farts in
(05:36):
polite company? Well, my dad wouldn't. I mean, that was
the word that was not used in my house growing up. Really.
I think I had a picture book something along the
lines of like everybody farts. You know. It was a
story about this kid he went to the grocery store
with his dad or something. That's all I remember, But
I just remember my dad. I distinctly remember this. He
looks at me and he goes, can we just say
(05:58):
poot as we're reading this? And I was like, yeah, yeah, sure,
whatever you want, Dad, you're reading the story. Why do
you think poot is better than fart? Poot is cute,
poot sound, poot is a gentler sound fired far? But
why do we pass the gas caroline? A couple of reasons.
(06:19):
Probably you're eating wrong, but it's really more than that. Um,
it could happen when you inadvertently swallow gases while you
eat and as food is digested, it could be a
carb issue. Either you're you're eating a lot of them
and so that they're hard for the body to break down.
But also you could have gut bacteria that consume carbs
(06:40):
too efficiently or not efficiently enough. You need that Goldilocks
amount of carb digestion. Yeah, And farting rids the colon
then of unwanted gases, and it relieves the intestines of
unwanted pressure. So farting in that way is definitely good
for you. And and just a side note, if you
are planning a dinner date, you know some foods that
(07:04):
you might want to avoid less allowing gas to possibly
spoil an intimate moment um. The whole baked beans thing
actually true. Maybe don't have a barbecue first date. Um,
it's and it's because beans lead to farts a lot
of times because they're made up of simple carbs, which
(07:25):
are not absorbed into the intestines is easily. They're broken
down rather by bacteria and enzymes and then they ferment.
How delightful, How it sounds like a party in your
gut um. Other gassy foods include red meat, vegetables, particularly broccoli,
brussels sprout, cabbage and cauliflower, uh, and grains and fiber
(07:47):
and something that I did not know before this research.
Pumper nickel, the dark green bread. It actually means goblin
it breaks wind in Old German. That's great. That sounds
like scary bread, sounds like terrifying bread. And I wish
that we just called it that instead of pump er nickel. Personally,
if you wanted to instead pack a lover's picnic, that
(08:08):
would steer clear of the faunting pastries. Potatoes, citrus, fruits,
apples and breads would be some wise choices. Yeah, they're
a little less party, just starchy foods. Yeah. Um, but
what is in the gas that we passed? What is
that stuff made up of? Well, of what is in
(08:29):
a fart actually doesn't smell. Uh, It's made up of
carbon dioxide, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and that lovely explosive gas methane. Yeah,
the stinky stuff comes in that one percent of sulfur
gases contained in our farts, specifically hydrogen sulfide, which is
responsible for that rotten egg smell, which is actually super
(08:52):
lethal in high doses. But thankfully the dosage that comes
out in a fart not lethal at all. Then there's
method need the all, which smells like decomposing vegetables. And finally,
and to me, the most stomach turning gas on the
list is die methyl sulfide, which apparently lends a sweet
(09:14):
odor profile to the gas um and everybody's gas composition, though,
is a little bit different, and one scientist even likened
it to the uniqueness of our fingerprints, which is possibly
why Caroline, we usually don't mind the smell of our
own farts, as much as we probably hate to admit it.
It doesn't, it doesn't revolt us. Well. Another Caroline's dad
(09:37):
related fart story is that he refers to his own
as ambrosia, mostly to discuss my mother. But I secretly
think like he really believes that. You think he really doesn't.
He thinks he's spelling that the and then the food
of the gods. Wow um. Well. As for a more
elevated reason why we find farts uh stinky is Rachel Hurts,
(10:01):
who is an evolutionary biologist who wrote That's Disgusting. Unraveling
the Mysteries of Repulsion says that someone else's farts are
disgusting because they represent possible contamination by an outsider and
their foreign waste, right totally makes sense, absolutely, it probably
makes sense. Well, so how much gas is coming out
of us during the day. You can use this to
(10:22):
possibly measure your own farts. And this is when we
get into men versus women. Yes, we found a gender
dynamic to even farting. You're welcome. So the average amount
of gas we passed during the day is between somewhere
between five hundred and two thousand milli liters per day,
which is like about ten ten poots. But men they
(10:44):
pass about a hundred and ten milli leaders of gas
per day, which is about if you're measuring if you're
going to be cooking with your farts, that's about a
half cup half cup of gas per fart. Women, on
the other hand, they don't pass as much gas, but
we'll get into it. They passed worse. Get us. Women
fart about eighty million leads of gas per day, which
is about a third of a cup. Yeah, and and
(11:04):
that's probably because we tend to have smaller bodies, so
we produced smaller amounts of farts. Just makes sense. And
how do we know all of these details about the
science of farts, Well, there's a guy nickname Dr Fart
who Mary Roach also talks about um in her book,
and there was also an article on him in Salon
(11:27):
in two thousand. Dr Michael D. Levitt is a gastro urologist,
an associate chief staff at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center,
and the leading authority on flatulence who has published nearly
three articles about flatulence in the medical journals. That is
quite a resume. Well, I mean, he even sounds kind
(11:50):
of surprised when they talked to him. He even sounds
surprised about the level of interest in farts and that
it's gotten him this far. He said that in other countries,
no way, what a science, steady farts. But for reasons
I can't completely figure out, farting is considered wrong in
America and people are worried about it. Arts have been
good to me. I've done very well. Thank you. Yeah.
And the only reason he got into it was because
(12:13):
in nineteen seventy six a patient came in with this problem,
which was that he was farting a lot. He had
the patient essentially keep a fart diary and found out
that it was happening about thirty four times a day,
and since Levitt didn't have any averages to compare it to,
he was like, well, I need some I need some data.
(12:33):
I need to know whether or not this is normal
or or just how abnormal this is. And so he
set up to find out how much gas people passing,
what it's made of, and actually devise things like special
underpants that trap the gas so that the scientists could
then analyze the composition. Just how we know all of
(12:54):
those different components to farts, and how everyone has a
little bit different of each. That's great. Yeah, fart science,
fart science. Well, and it turns out that let it
figured out the guy was just lactose intolerant. I know,
well he did. He did recruit seven people to track
(13:17):
what I call farctivity and farctivity art activity. Again, he
found out that with this control group, their mean flattest
frequency turned out to be thirteen point six episodes per day. Yeah,
and there was no significant differences due to age, gender, etcetera.
But I mean, we found that men per fart fart more,
(13:39):
probably due to body size. Although I'd be curious if
you have been equally sized man and woman, if if
they'd be if they be fart and about the same amount.
But women, our farts are usually stinkier. Scientific fact, yes,
our farts small more why due to higher levels of
hydrogen soul fide A lot of times rotten egxtent comes
(14:03):
out more. And I, on the one hand, when I
first learned this, I was grossed out, and then on
the other hand, I was kind of pleased because if
there is anything that will poke a hole in this
notion that women are just dainty butterflies, it is that
our farts are the fottiest. Yeah, Tracy Moore would agree
(14:26):
with you, Kristen. She read about this whole fart equality
issue for Jezebel and so that women should run to
the nearest high point in their offices or environments right
now and coordinate one giant fart for womankind, the kind
that silences our detractors. But good and when the air clears,
we'll see who's laughing. Oh man, I mean, I don't
(14:48):
know if I'm like that much for your party. I'm not.
I'm not pro farting. I'd like to I'd like to
clarify that. Um. There there was one study that had
a pretty loose methodology but wanted to look into the
psychology of farting. It was a hypothetical scenario bringing in
(15:09):
um men and women and asking how they would respond
if someone farted near them and whether or not that
if that person farted intentionally or not. And the research
did find And again this is a little bit grain
of salt because even the research here, this guy Lippmann said, uh,
I kind of just did this as a bit of
a joke, But his research suggested that women were more
(15:34):
forgiving than men of loud accidental farts. So you know,
I guess if you're going to have an accidental fart
slip out in public, hope that it's around women, is it?
Then I'll give you that look of like, yeah, no,
it's cool or as how would how would men respond?
Do you think? Laughter? High five? Dude, dude, that foot
(15:55):
was a ten like that. Yeah, I clearly hang out
with with the Jersey Shore guys. Well, so, but what
about what about if you fart in front of your
beloved or your one day to be beloved? Yeah. I
got a real big kick out of an article that
Tracy Clark Floury, who is the sex writer at Salon,
(16:18):
wrote about farting in relationships because I feel like everybody
who has been in a relationship has been here where
your hang out and you really like somebody and then
you you got fart And when do you do that?
When they get up to go to the bathroom? But
what if they don't have to be you know, at
(16:41):
some point, at some point, if you're in a long
term relationship, it's going to happen. Yeah. Now, there's there's
nothing better than like leaving a date when you first
started seeing someone and just letting all that gas go. Yeah,
you've been holding even storing all of it up. It's
really there's a lot of backup. She talks though. Clark
(17:01):
Floory talks in the article about how she was terrified
to fart or poop around her boyfriend, and um, there
was this scene that she cited in the movie Love
and Other Disasters, talking about how there are three stages
of farting in relationships, the first one being the fantasy
period when both pretend they never do it. You know,
(17:21):
no one, no one farts, neither party farts around the
other person. But then stage two comes, Caroline, what happens then?
So you're in love, you've got stars in your eyes,
and somebody farts for the first time and oh my
got it so funny and cute and adorable, like theyn't
believe you did that. And then there's stage three, known
as the fork in the fart, and this is when
(17:44):
farting it's really kind of a barometer for the relationship
because it's either acceptable and you're just like, you know what,
we're in this for the long haul. You fart, I fart.
Let's be polite, you know, not not dutch ov and
all the time. But that's gonna happen, or it makes
that stale relationship just stink even more because that personal
(18:07):
fart and you're just like, and you're farting, you know,
and that's when you know you gotta that's it. I
only date people who fart rainbows, not actual gas. But
there are also, though, do you know people like this
who are in relationships, even marriages, who still never after
being with a person for years, it's no farting, there's
(18:30):
just you stay in that. I think there's still people
who will stay in that stage, one of both parties
pretending that they don't do it, just like I don't know,
I don't think I am aware of anyone. But then again,
I don't really talk about farting that often outside of
this recording studio. I mean, I've been talking about a
lot this week, but I still get a little embarrassed
(18:50):
if I if I fart around my boyfriend. Sure, no,
I Yeah. Let's get something straight here, lady. I have
not like let a big one rip in front of
my boyfriend or anything. He's got a couple ripped, and
he honestly like just keeps going about what he's doing.
And I look at it and I'm like, seriously, you
just let that huge one ripped right in front of me.
And he's like, oh yeah, sorry, yeah the last time.
That the last part that really sticks out in my mind.
(19:14):
My boyfriend I was sitting watching a movie next to
each other on the couch and it was a silent
but dead late which is actually a myth. Uh dr
Levitt has um busted the idea that if it is silent,
it will smell worse. It's just no, that's not always
the case. But this was one of those and he
didn't say anything, and I'm like, I know that he
(19:36):
knows that I can smell this garbage, and I wanted
to just see it, like whether he and he just
didn't say anything, and then I didn't say anything, and then, um, yeah,
well I had an awkward It was actually hilarious, and
uh I enjoyed it after the fact. But my boyfriend
(19:58):
and I were driving around one day and we stopped
at a stop sign and all of a sudden, the
car was just filled with this garbage smell, and I
was like, I'm not gonna say anything, but then it
didn't dissipate. Eventually a fart will dissipate or you east
to it or whatever. You didn't roll out a window, well,
let me tell you. It didn't dissipate. And so I
look at him and I'm like, dude, really that was awful,
(20:19):
and he goes, well, I didn't do it, You did it,
and I thought he was just, you know, denying off,
and so then he then it was like jokes who
were laughing because we just thought the other person was
denying it. And then it became clear that when the
smell didn't dissipate that it wasn't either one of us.
There was like a garbage dump or a dead body
or something nearby, because my entire car for like a
(20:42):
ten minute car ride, was flooded with the smell, and
when we rolled down the windows we realized it was
the cows and the cow pastures nearby, because it only
got worse when I rolled the window down. Legitimate gagging,
but yeah, that was a little bit of fart accusing.
Had a fart confrontation though, fart frontation, fart from AA
and I feel like those, you know, they need to
happen in in relationships. It's part of well rounded communication,
(21:06):
the fart talk, which apparently I wasn't practicing that other
night when I was watching that movie m But sometimes
you just you just don't want to bring it up. Um,
but there are some people who really like farts. Yes,
this is this is actually the only uh if their
kids in the car sensitivity issue right now, because uh,
(21:30):
there is a fetish for farts. It's called a proctophilia,
and it was documented for the first time very recently. Yeah,
this is coming from a Telegraph article from July of
this year. A British psychologist recorded the case of a
twenty two year old man from Illinois who was attracted
(21:52):
to farting women. He was first aroused this this whole
like fart love. He first realized his love of farts
when a friend of his farted, and then he was
just delighted when he heard one of his crushes fart. Yeah. Um,
And the doctor said that a proctophiles are said to
(22:14):
spend an abnormal amount of time thinking about farting and
flatulence and have recurring intense sexual urges and fantasies involving
farting and flatulence, which sounds to me like a like
a fetish. So that definitely exists. I mean, I have
a feeling this Illinois man is in a very slim
minority of people, but it doesn't. It's a strange thing,
(22:39):
but you know there there are stranger Yeah, it could
just I mean, it could just be the issue that
it is taboo. Well, and Tracy Clark Floury even sits
in that article about farting relationships about how James Joyce
was wild about his wife Norma's farts. I can't even
read you the direct wote because it's, uh, it's pretty profane. Um,
(23:04):
but let's just say James Joyce liked a good fart.
So so if if, if, if this is ringing a
bell in your brain, you know people, there are people
out there. Yeah, we're here to bring you the information
that's right. Well, you might be wondering, you've listened to
all of this and why we fart and what it's
made up of. But can you get rid of them? Yeah?
(23:26):
Not really. Things like beano and gas X don't really work,
and activated charcoal pills won't really do much to help
you either. And acids can maybe calm your stomach, like
if it maybe if you are eating food that is
that is too much for your stomach. But for odor, hey, y'all,
why don't you try some charcoal fart cushions, a tutor
trapper if you will. Well, what about bismuth pills like
(23:49):
business as in pepto bismol. The bismus and that um
bismus pills have been shown to reduce sulfur gas odor,
so that could help with the smell. You might still
produce the fart, but remember that a fart is odorless gas. Yeah,
and that bismus is the active ingredient in a pill
I've never heard of because it's not advertised widely. If
(24:09):
you can imagine it dev rom which is internal deodorant pills.
Now there's the marketing for you. Well, and I have
a feeling though I mean, Carolina an old doctor, but
I have a feeling that diet and exercise would be
a good way to go if you are, you know,
if you're nervous about your your farting behavior, because exercise
has been shown to help out with relieving gas because um,
(24:33):
it helps the body absorb gases in the colon, thereby
dissipating them by the time they travel further southward toward
the exit door. Right, But that uh, that source that
talks about the exercise does talk about even if you do,
even if it's not all absorbed and you do pass
one on the treadmill or whatever like Jim Smell. Anyway,
(24:56):
that's right. You know, there's enough people around you in
bigger Gim's that you could just blame it on somebody else,
and everybody does it, you know. So while I think
that I think it's always going to be good to
be polite with it, because there is clearly, uh, an
evolutionarily ingrained, disgusted trigger that farts trip off. But you
(25:19):
know what, if it happens, it happens, and and that's okay. Hope,
hopefully maybe it's around a group of women, because apparently
we're very forgiving about that or maybe just talk about
it behind your back right after you're gone. So I
hope that was helpful and I can't wait to hear
from people on this topic. Mom seven discovery dot com
(25:39):
for your emails. You can also find us on Facebook
and tweet us at Mom's Stuff podcast. And we've got
a couple of letters to read. And now back to
our letters, well, Caroline, I have one here from Scotch
in response to our episode on the Bechdel Test, and
he said it fascinated me that popular culture still defines
(26:03):
the majority of their women on the basis of their men.
And being a man myself but one who strives to
view differing gender perspectives, the subtle yet wide ranging scope
of this issue astounded me. The question I would pose
in this line of thought is this are their mainstream
media type movies or TV shows who define their men
solely through the strength of their women characters. I was
(26:25):
talking to one of my friends about Orange is a
New Black, and that was one of his criticisms of
the show, though it is a women's presence, so it
makes sense. I just think in finding fully realized characters
that are women, truly realized, one can also look for
a one dimensional man, though even as a pro feminist idea,
one could also argue that this whole conversation plays right
into the other in perspective on the negative feminist ideas
(26:47):
in that and signaling out a search for women who
aren't defined by their men. They're still defined by their womanhood,
which is separate from manhood. Just the thought I mean
to answer this question though, about finding men slowly to
find through the strength of their women characters. It's what
you talked about in the episode of why isn't there
(27:07):
a Bechdel Test for men? And it's because it's really
not needed because the issue of too many one dimensional
men isn't the point right exactly. And I know what
he's talking about with Orange is a New Black um
what's his name from American Pie here, I am one
dimensionalizing him. He's the main dude in it. But I
would argue that those men, while they do play off
(27:31):
all of the women they have, they have some depth
to them. I mean, everybody's a bit of a character
on there. Yeah, But I wouldn't say that that's the
failing of the show because the focus really is on
these women. But I guess you could also argue that
I'm just reversing Bechdel tests. So something to think about now. Now,
(27:53):
I feel like you need to go off and ponder.
Christen's gonna sit quietly in her chair for the rest
of the afternoon in like a thought spiral about this.
I am so thank you Scott though, for the compelling question. Okay,
So I have an email here from Alisa who is
answering our call for Scandinavian listeners to weigh in on
the diamond engagement ring issue. Um. She says, I'm American,
(28:17):
lived in Iceland for many years, now live in Norway
and an engaged with German men Germany. We bought each
other engagement rings, but mind silver with tiny pearls and staffires.
His is titanium, and we both wear them on our
left ring fingers. Germans seem to commonly wear their wedding
rings on their right hands, so he will swap over
to a wedding band on his right hand when we're married.
(28:39):
I know other engaged German couples that don't wear rings
at all. After the ceremony, they will both wear the
same style of plain gold band. They seem to be
less into unusual materials or designs than my American friend.
In Iceland and Norway, people often buy wedding bands when
they decide to get married and we'll wear them right away.
Icelanders go either right or left hand, but miss Norwegians
(29:01):
wear their wedding rings on their right hands. My Norwegian
friends say this is so you shake hands with someone,
they will see right away you're off the market because
they're already wearing rings. People might not even have a
ring exchanging part of their wedding ceremony. Personally, Alisa says,
I like that my fiance wanted to have a ring too,
(29:21):
and announced his non single state to the world. The
tradition of exchanging tokens was meaningful to me, and it
makes me happy to have a ring that reminds me
of him when we're not together. That's sweet. Thank you, Elsa,
and thanks to everybody who's written in mom Stuff. Discovery
dot com is where you can send your letters. You
can find us on Facebook as well and follow us
(29:41):
on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. Don't forget that we
are on Tumbler to stuff mom Never told You dot
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slash stuff, Mom never told you, and don't forget to subscribe.
More on this and thousands of other topics. Is it
(30:02):
how stuff works dot com h
Welcome to stuff Mom Never told you From House top
works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Caroline and Kristen. Kristen. When you ever so delicately suggested
that we tackle the subject of parting in the podcast,
I was not super excited. I started reading about farts
(00:27):
and had that look on my face the whole time,
just like, but you don't want. The more I've read
about farts, I have come to love them. You've come
around to love farts. Yeah, not not you know, the
smelling of others farts, but just the idea of them.
And they're very colorful, tooty, fruity history. Yeah, and their
(00:49):
strange role in society. And yes, friends, the gender dynamics
of farts, which we will get to. Um and I mean,
how long have humans have been farting? Humans have been
farting as long as humans have existed, and so the record,
the historical record of farts and and and just f y.
(01:12):
I people, this is a safe for all audiences podcast.
We are gonna be talking about farting and pouting and
cutting the cheese. But you know what, everybody does it.
We all do it, so so keep keep on listening.
Why don't you. Um. Let's go back though to for
TBC Room and guys Patronius who wrote, take my word
(01:35):
for it, friends, the vapors go straight to your brain,
poison your whole system. Yeah. Man. People were terrified of
the effect, the potential effect of gas trapped in your system.
Sir Thomas Moore in the sixteenth century said wind, if
(01:56):
kept too long in your stomach, killed you. Yeah. Um.
Mary Roach in her book Gulp talks about how in
the early twentieth century there were all these quacks who
basically said, you would better clean out your intestines because
you know, if you're not giving yourself colonics and and douching, etcetera,
(02:19):
then all those vapors inside of you will make you
very sick. Yeah. I mean the the advertising that went
into this, that the packaging and the marketing and everything
for these items is crazy. Like they were basically, they
were just stopping short of saying that it will kill
you if you don't clean your poop out of yourself
and make sure that you don't, you know, trap gas
(02:41):
in your system. Although maybe to give the quacks a
tiny shred of of understanding, holding in a fart for
too long for an extended period of time can cause
some stomach disruption, a little bit of discomfort. Jim Dawson,
who wrote the book Who Cut the Cheese, A Cultural
(03:02):
History of the Fart. Yeah, these are the kinds of
books the Carolina and I get to read. Um. He
writes about how gas trapped in your colon can cause
severe pains in your chest and arms, like a heart attack,
so watch out for that. Yeah. So people might have
thought that, you know, a fart was killing them. So
but but why do we call a fart of fart? Carolina?
(03:23):
Is it an automatopeia or what's called is an acronym? Well,
I love the atomology of this. The word fart actually
comes from the Old English Verton to fart invert a fart,
and about six hundred years ago the pronunciation shifted to hurt.
Oh wait, oh I got the fairy shifted to fert
(03:48):
um and fart. The actual word fart first appeared in
a poem from around twelve fifty. Yeah. One thing that
I was surprised to find in our fart research was
how how much scholarship has been done, not so much
on the science of farts, although that definitely exists. But
on the instances of farting in romantic literature, I don't
(04:10):
have all of the examples, but it's uh and I
have a feeling that probably the context of fart in
that twelve fifty poem has to do with someone wooing
someone else in a fart, either getting in the way
or being the the gatekeeper. You know what. I think
it was animal romance. It was something like the buck
(04:32):
jumps and some other animal farts. Yeah, yeah, which is
I mean, these magnificent beasts fartes, fartes on your face off,
furts it furts? Um. Well, the word fart disappeared from
from popular literature in the nineteenth century, which is no
surprise if you're a regular podcast listener. You know, those
(04:52):
people in the nineteenth century were um polite. They were
very polite. Jim Dawson, who cut the cheese, actually mentions
how Victorian women would rustle their bustles of their full
dresses if they had to fart. I mean, I'm I
don't know how that's verified, but it just makes sense.
Maybe somebody in some letter wrote to her her cousin
(05:15):
and was like, oh, dear, wrestling the vessel, But you
mean Obviously, fart has re emerged in more common language today,
but it's still not a polite term. I mean, the
fact that we're dedicating an entire episode to farts does
feel at the outset a little bit juvenile, because who
talks about farts and polite company or who farts in
(05:36):
polite company? Well, my dad wouldn't. I mean, that was
the word that was not used in my house growing up. Really.
I think I had a picture book something along the
lines of like everybody farts. You know. It was a
story about this kid he went to the grocery store
with his dad or something. That's all I remember, But
I just remember my dad. I distinctly remember this. He
looks at me and he goes, can we just say
(05:58):
poot as we're reading this? And I was like, yeah, yeah, sure,
whatever you want, Dad, you're reading the story. Why do
you think poot is better than fart? Poot is cute,
poot sound, poot is a gentler sound fired far? But
why do we pass the gas caroline? A couple of reasons.
(06:19):
Probably you're eating wrong, but it's really more than that. Um,
it could happen when you inadvertently swallow gases while you
eat and as food is digested, it could be a
carb issue. Either you're you're eating a lot of them
and so that they're hard for the body to break down.
But also you could have gut bacteria that consume carbs
(06:40):
too efficiently or not efficiently enough. You need that Goldilocks
amount of carb digestion. Yeah, And farting rids the colon
then of unwanted gases, and it relieves the intestines of
unwanted pressure. So farting in that way is definitely good
for you. And and just a side note, if you
are planning a dinner date, you know some foods that
(07:04):
you might want to avoid less allowing gas to possibly
spoil an intimate moment um. The whole baked beans thing
actually true. Maybe don't have a barbecue first date. Um,
it's and it's because beans lead to farts a lot
of times because they're made up of simple carbs, which
(07:25):
are not absorbed into the intestines is easily. They're broken
down rather by bacteria and enzymes and then they ferment.
How delightful, How it sounds like a party in your
gut um. Other gassy foods include red meat, vegetables, particularly broccoli,
brussels sprout, cabbage and cauliflower, uh, and grains and fiber
(07:47):
and something that I did not know before this research.
Pumper nickel, the dark green bread. It actually means goblin
it breaks wind in Old German. That's great. That sounds
like scary bread, sounds like terrifying bread. And I wish
that we just called it that instead of pump er nickel. Personally,
if you wanted to instead pack a lover's picnic, that
(08:08):
would steer clear of the faunting pastries. Potatoes, citrus, fruits,
apples and breads would be some wise choices. Yeah, they're
a little less party, just starchy foods. Yeah. Um, but
what is in the gas that we passed? What is
that stuff made up of? Well, of what is in
(08:29):
a fart actually doesn't smell. Uh, It's made up of
carbon dioxide, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and that lovely explosive gas methane. Yeah,
the stinky stuff comes in that one percent of sulfur
gases contained in our farts, specifically hydrogen sulfide, which is
responsible for that rotten egg smell, which is actually super
(08:52):
lethal in high doses. But thankfully the dosage that comes
out in a fart not lethal at all. Then there's
method need the all, which smells like decomposing vegetables. And finally,
and to me, the most stomach turning gas on the
list is die methyl sulfide, which apparently lends a sweet
(09:14):
odor profile to the gas um and everybody's gas composition, though,
is a little bit different, and one scientist even likened
it to the uniqueness of our fingerprints, which is possibly
why Caroline, we usually don't mind the smell of our
own farts, as much as we probably hate to admit it.
It doesn't, it doesn't revolt us. Well. Another Caroline's dad
(09:37):
related fart story is that he refers to his own
as ambrosia, mostly to discuss my mother. But I secretly
think like he really believes that. You think he really doesn't.
He thinks he's spelling that the and then the food
of the gods. Wow um. Well. As for a more
elevated reason why we find farts uh stinky is Rachel Hurts,
(10:01):
who is an evolutionary biologist who wrote That's Disgusting. Unraveling
the Mysteries of Repulsion says that someone else's farts are
disgusting because they represent possible contamination by an outsider and
their foreign waste, right totally makes sense, absolutely, it probably
makes sense. Well, so how much gas is coming out
of us during the day. You can use this to
(10:22):
possibly measure your own farts. And this is when we
get into men versus women. Yes, we found a gender
dynamic to even farting. You're welcome. So the average amount
of gas we passed during the day is between somewhere
between five hundred and two thousand milli liters per day,
which is like about ten ten poots. But men they
(10:44):
pass about a hundred and ten milli leaders of gas
per day, which is about if you're measuring if you're
going to be cooking with your farts, that's about a
half cup half cup of gas per fart. Women, on
the other hand, they don't pass as much gas, but
we'll get into it. They passed worse. Get us. Women
fart about eighty million leads of gas per day, which
is about a third of a cup. Yeah, and and
(11:04):
that's probably because we tend to have smaller bodies, so
we produced smaller amounts of farts. Just makes sense. And
how do we know all of these details about the
science of farts, Well, there's a guy nickname Dr Fart
who Mary Roach also talks about um in her book,
and there was also an article on him in Salon
(11:27):
in two thousand. Dr Michael D. Levitt is a gastro urologist,
an associate chief staff at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center,
and the leading authority on flatulence who has published nearly
three articles about flatulence in the medical journals. That is
quite a resume. Well, I mean, he even sounds kind
(11:50):
of surprised when they talked to him. He even sounds
surprised about the level of interest in farts and that
it's gotten him this far. He said that in other countries,
no way, what a science, steady farts. But for reasons
I can't completely figure out, farting is considered wrong in
America and people are worried about it. Arts have been
good to me. I've done very well. Thank you. Yeah.
And the only reason he got into it was because
(12:13):
in nineteen seventy six a patient came in with this problem,
which was that he was farting a lot. He had
the patient essentially keep a fart diary and found out
that it was happening about thirty four times a day,
and since Levitt didn't have any averages to compare it to,
he was like, well, I need some I need some data.
(12:33):
I need to know whether or not this is normal
or or just how abnormal this is. And so he
set up to find out how much gas people passing,
what it's made of, and actually devise things like special
underpants that trap the gas so that the scientists could
then analyze the composition. Just how we know all of
(12:54):
those different components to farts, and how everyone has a
little bit different of each. That's great. Yeah, fart science,
fart science. Well, and it turns out that let it
figured out the guy was just lactose intolerant. I know,
well he did. He did recruit seven people to track
(13:17):
what I call farctivity and farctivity art activity. Again, he
found out that with this control group, their mean flattest
frequency turned out to be thirteen point six episodes per day. Yeah,
and there was no significant differences due to age, gender, etcetera.
But I mean, we found that men per fart fart more,
(13:39):
probably due to body size. Although I'd be curious if
you have been equally sized man and woman, if if
they'd be if they be fart and about the same amount.
But women, our farts are usually stinkier. Scientific fact, yes,
our farts small more why due to higher levels of
hydrogen soul fide A lot of times rotten egxtent comes
(14:03):
out more. And I, on the one hand, when I
first learned this, I was grossed out, and then on
the other hand, I was kind of pleased because if
there is anything that will poke a hole in this
notion that women are just dainty butterflies, it is that
our farts are the fottiest. Yeah, Tracy Moore would agree
(14:26):
with you, Kristen. She read about this whole fart equality
issue for Jezebel and so that women should run to
the nearest high point in their offices or environments right
now and coordinate one giant fart for womankind, the kind
that silences our detractors. But good and when the air clears,
we'll see who's laughing. Oh man, I mean, I don't
(14:48):
know if I'm like that much for your party. I'm not.
I'm not pro farting. I'd like to I'd like to
clarify that. Um. There there was one study that had
a pretty loose methodology but wanted to look into the
psychology of farting. It was a hypothetical scenario bringing in
(15:09):
um men and women and asking how they would respond
if someone farted near them and whether or not that
if that person farted intentionally or not. And the research
did find And again this is a little bit grain
of salt because even the research here, this guy Lippmann said, uh,
I kind of just did this as a bit of
a joke, But his research suggested that women were more
(15:34):
forgiving than men of loud accidental farts. So you know,
I guess if you're going to have an accidental fart
slip out in public, hope that it's around women, is it?
Then I'll give you that look of like, yeah, no,
it's cool or as how would how would men respond?
Do you think? Laughter? High five? Dude, dude, that foot
(15:55):
was a ten like that. Yeah, I clearly hang out
with with the Jersey Shore guys. Well, so, but what
about what about if you fart in front of your
beloved or your one day to be beloved? Yeah. I
got a real big kick out of an article that
Tracy Clark Floury, who is the sex writer at Salon,
(16:18):
wrote about farting in relationships because I feel like everybody
who has been in a relationship has been here where
your hang out and you really like somebody and then
you you got fart And when do you do that?
When they get up to go to the bathroom? But
what if they don't have to be you know, at
(16:41):
some point, at some point, if you're in a long
term relationship, it's going to happen. Yeah. Now, there's there's
nothing better than like leaving a date when you first
started seeing someone and just letting all that gas go. Yeah,
you've been holding even storing all of it up. It's
really there's a lot of backup. She talks though. Clark
(17:01):
Floory talks in the article about how she was terrified
to fart or poop around her boyfriend, and um, there
was this scene that she cited in the movie Love
and Other Disasters, talking about how there are three stages
of farting in relationships, the first one being the fantasy
period when both pretend they never do it. You know,
(17:21):
no one, no one farts, neither party farts around the
other person. But then stage two comes, Caroline, what happens then?
So you're in love, you've got stars in your eyes,
and somebody farts for the first time and oh my
got it so funny and cute and adorable, like theyn't
believe you did that. And then there's stage three, known
as the fork in the fart, and this is when
(17:44):
farting it's really kind of a barometer for the relationship
because it's either acceptable and you're just like, you know what,
we're in this for the long haul. You fart, I fart.
Let's be polite, you know, not not dutch ov and
all the time. But that's gonna happen, or it makes
that stale relationship just stink even more because that personal
(18:07):
fart and you're just like, and you're farting, you know,
and that's when you know you gotta that's it. I
only date people who fart rainbows, not actual gas. But
there are also, though, do you know people like this
who are in relationships, even marriages, who still never after
being with a person for years, it's no farting, there's
(18:30):
just you stay in that. I think there's still people
who will stay in that stage, one of both parties
pretending that they don't do it, just like I don't know,
I don't think I am aware of anyone. But then again,
I don't really talk about farting that often outside of
this recording studio. I mean, I've been talking about a
lot this week, but I still get a little embarrassed
(18:50):
if I if I fart around my boyfriend. Sure, no,
I Yeah. Let's get something straight here, lady. I have
not like let a big one rip in front of
my boyfriend or anything. He's got a couple ripped, and
he honestly like just keeps going about what he's doing.
And I look at it and I'm like, seriously, you
just let that huge one ripped right in front of me.
And he's like, oh yeah, sorry, yeah the last time.
That the last part that really sticks out in my mind.
(19:14):
My boyfriend I was sitting watching a movie next to
each other on the couch and it was a silent
but dead late which is actually a myth. Uh dr
Levitt has um busted the idea that if it is silent,
it will smell worse. It's just no, that's not always
the case. But this was one of those and he
didn't say anything, and I'm like, I know that he
(19:36):
knows that I can smell this garbage, and I wanted
to just see it, like whether he and he just
didn't say anything, and then I didn't say anything, and then, um, yeah,
well I had an awkward It was actually hilarious, and
uh I enjoyed it after the fact. But my boyfriend
(19:58):
and I were driving around one day and we stopped
at a stop sign and all of a sudden, the
car was just filled with this garbage smell, and I
was like, I'm not gonna say anything, but then it
didn't dissipate. Eventually a fart will dissipate or you east
to it or whatever. You didn't roll out a window, well,
let me tell you. It didn't dissipate. And so I
look at him and I'm like, dude, really that was awful,
(20:19):
and he goes, well, I didn't do it, You did it,
and I thought he was just, you know, denying off,
and so then he then it was like jokes who
were laughing because we just thought the other person was
denying it. And then it became clear that when the
smell didn't dissipate that it wasn't either one of us.
There was like a garbage dump or a dead body
or something nearby, because my entire car for like a
(20:42):
ten minute car ride, was flooded with the smell, and
when we rolled down the windows we realized it was
the cows and the cow pastures nearby, because it only
got worse when I rolled the window down. Legitimate gagging,
but yeah, that was a little bit of fart accusing.
Had a fart confrontation though, fart frontation, fart from AA
and I feel like those, you know, they need to
happen in in relationships. It's part of well rounded communication,
(21:06):
the fart talk, which apparently I wasn't practicing that other
night when I was watching that movie m But sometimes
you just you just don't want to bring it up. Um,
but there are some people who really like farts. Yes,
this is this is actually the only uh if their
kids in the car sensitivity issue right now, because uh,
(21:30):
there is a fetish for farts. It's called a proctophilia,
and it was documented for the first time very recently. Yeah,
this is coming from a Telegraph article from July of
this year. A British psychologist recorded the case of a
twenty two year old man from Illinois who was attracted
(21:52):
to farting women. He was first aroused this this whole
like fart love. He first realized his love of farts
when a friend of his farted, and then he was
just delighted when he heard one of his crushes fart. Yeah. Um,
And the doctor said that a proctophiles are said to
(22:14):
spend an abnormal amount of time thinking about farting and
flatulence and have recurring intense sexual urges and fantasies involving
farting and flatulence, which sounds to me like a like
a fetish. So that definitely exists. I mean, I have
a feeling this Illinois man is in a very slim
minority of people, but it doesn't. It's a strange thing,
(22:39):
but you know there there are stranger Yeah, it could
just I mean, it could just be the issue that
it is taboo. Well, and Tracy Clark Floury even sits
in that article about farting relationships about how James Joyce
was wild about his wife Norma's farts. I can't even
read you the direct wote because it's, uh, it's pretty profane. Um,
(23:04):
but let's just say James Joyce liked a good fart.
So so if if, if, if this is ringing a
bell in your brain, you know people, there are people
out there. Yeah, we're here to bring you the information
that's right. Well, you might be wondering, you've listened to
all of this and why we fart and what it's
made up of. But can you get rid of them? Yeah?
(23:26):
Not really. Things like beano and gas X don't really work,
and activated charcoal pills won't really do much to help
you either. And acids can maybe calm your stomach, like
if it maybe if you are eating food that is
that is too much for your stomach. But for odor, hey, y'all,
why don't you try some charcoal fart cushions, a tutor
trapper if you will. Well, what about bismuth pills like
(23:49):
business as in pepto bismol. The bismus and that um
bismus pills have been shown to reduce sulfur gas odor,
so that could help with the smell. You might still
produce the fart, but remember that a fart is odorless gas. Yeah,
and that bismus is the active ingredient in a pill
I've never heard of because it's not advertised widely. If
(24:09):
you can imagine it dev rom which is internal deodorant pills.
Now there's the marketing for you. Well, and I have
a feeling though I mean, Carolina an old doctor, but
I have a feeling that diet and exercise would be
a good way to go if you are, you know,
if you're nervous about your your farting behavior, because exercise
has been shown to help out with relieving gas because um,
(24:33):
it helps the body absorb gases in the colon, thereby
dissipating them by the time they travel further southward toward
the exit door. Right, But that uh, that source that
talks about the exercise does talk about even if you do,
even if it's not all absorbed and you do pass
one on the treadmill or whatever like Jim Smell. Anyway,
(24:56):
that's right. You know, there's enough people around you in
bigger Gim's that you could just blame it on somebody else,
and everybody does it, you know. So while I think
that I think it's always going to be good to
be polite with it, because there is clearly, uh, an
evolutionarily ingrained, disgusted trigger that farts trip off. But you
(25:19):
know what, if it happens, it happens, and and that's okay. Hope,
hopefully maybe it's around a group of women, because apparently
we're very forgiving about that or maybe just talk about
it behind your back right after you're gone. So I
hope that was helpful and I can't wait to hear
from people on this topic. Mom seven discovery dot com
(25:39):
for your emails. You can also find us on Facebook
and tweet us at Mom's Stuff podcast. And we've got
a couple of letters to read. And now back to
our letters, well, Caroline, I have one here from Scotch
in response to our episode on the Bechdel Test, and
he said it fascinated me that popular culture still defines
(26:03):
the majority of their women on the basis of their men.
And being a man myself but one who strives to
view differing gender perspectives, the subtle yet wide ranging scope
of this issue astounded me. The question I would pose
in this line of thought is this are their mainstream
media type movies or TV shows who define their men
solely through the strength of their women characters. I was
(26:25):
talking to one of my friends about Orange is a
New Black, and that was one of his criticisms of
the show, though it is a women's presence, so it
makes sense. I just think in finding fully realized characters
that are women, truly realized, one can also look for
a one dimensional man, though even as a pro feminist idea,
one could also argue that this whole conversation plays right
into the other in perspective on the negative feminist ideas
(26:47):
in that and signaling out a search for women who
aren't defined by their men. They're still defined by their womanhood,
which is separate from manhood. Just the thought I mean
to answer this question though, about finding men slowly to
find through the strength of their women characters. It's what
you talked about in the episode of why isn't there
(27:07):
a Bechdel Test for men? And it's because it's really
not needed because the issue of too many one dimensional
men isn't the point right exactly. And I know what
he's talking about with Orange is a New Black um
what's his name from American Pie here, I am one
dimensionalizing him. He's the main dude in it. But I
would argue that those men, while they do play off
(27:31):
all of the women they have, they have some depth
to them. I mean, everybody's a bit of a character
on there. Yeah, But I wouldn't say that that's the
failing of the show because the focus really is on
these women. But I guess you could also argue that
I'm just reversing Bechdel tests. So something to think about now. Now,
(27:53):
I feel like you need to go off and ponder.
Christen's gonna sit quietly in her chair for the rest
of the afternoon in like a thought spiral about this.
I am so thank you Scott though, for the compelling question. Okay,
So I have an email here from Alisa who is
answering our call for Scandinavian listeners to weigh in on
the diamond engagement ring issue. Um. She says, I'm American,
(28:17):
lived in Iceland for many years, now live in Norway
and an engaged with German men Germany. We bought each
other engagement rings, but mind silver with tiny pearls and staffires.
His is titanium, and we both wear them on our
left ring fingers. Germans seem to commonly wear their wedding
rings on their right hands, so he will swap over
to a wedding band on his right hand when we're married.
(28:39):
I know other engaged German couples that don't wear rings
at all. After the ceremony, they will both wear the
same style of plain gold band. They seem to be
less into unusual materials or designs than my American friend.
In Iceland and Norway, people often buy wedding bands when
they decide to get married and we'll wear them right away.
Icelanders go either right or left hand, but miss Norwegians
(29:01):
wear their wedding rings on their right hands. My Norwegian
friends say this is so you shake hands with someone,
they will see right away you're off the market because
they're already wearing rings. People might not even have a
ring exchanging part of their wedding ceremony. Personally, Alisa says,
I like that my fiance wanted to have a ring too,
(29:21):
and announced his non single state to the world. The
tradition of exchanging tokens was meaningful to me, and it
makes me happy to have a ring that reminds me
of him when we're not together. That's sweet. Thank you, Elsa,
and thanks to everybody who's written in mom Stuff. Discovery
dot com is where you can send your letters. You
can find us on Facebook as well and follow us
(29:41):
on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. Don't forget that we
are on Tumbler to stuff mom Never told You dot
tumbler dot com, and of course you can watch us
every week on the YouTube's head over to YouTube dot com,
slash stuff, Mom never told you, and don't forget to subscribe.
More on this and thousands of other topics. Is it
(30:02):
how stuff works dot com h
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