Hiccups, burping, and farting on top of them, are bodily functions that often make us laugh but also get us annoyed and embarrassed.
However, the truth is everyone farts – at home, at work, while we walk. But what do you know about these smelly toots of yours, except that smell and sound funny?
Read the following disgusting, smelly facts about them:
1. The word ‘fart’ originates from the Old English word ‘feortan’ which doesn’t have a vulgar connotation, but means ‘to break wind’.
2. An average person farts 14 times daily.
3. Your daily farts can fill a medium-sized balloon.
4. The foods that cause you fart the most are cauliflower, broccoli, eggs, kale, red meat, garlic, dairy products, and foods rich in yeast.
5. “Rectal catheter” can measure the volume of gas produced in farts.
6. The average fart’s speed that leaves the anus and enters the world is about 9.5 km/hr. or 10 feet per second.
7. Hydrogen sulfide is the gas that is responsible for the rancid rotten egg smell, and it constitutes about 1 percent of the fart.
8. Women’s farts contain more hydrogen sulfide, so their farts smell worse than those of men.
9. A person’s farts will never smell as horrible to him/her as somebody else’s farts.
10. Lighting a fart on fire is indeed possible.
11. Roman citizens were advised to fart whenever necessary, and Hippocrates, the Greek physician, recommended farting by saying that it was necessary for well-being.
12. The sexual arousal caused by farting is called eproctophilia. Yes, farting is a fetish.
13. Farts can act as a defensive mechanism. A 1996 case study about an abandoned boy says he used to wrap himself in a protective cloud produced by his farts, to protect himself from possible intruders.
14. If you restrain from farting, the held gases might cause headaches, distended bowel, or hemorrhoids. Nevertheless, suppressed farts often find their way out when the person sleeps.
15. According to research, sniffing farts can be healthy. Sniffing hydrogen sulfide (contained in farts) in small amounts can reverse mitochondrial damage and help avert dementia, strokes, heart attacks, and cancer.
16. The fart is much louder if the anus is tighter.
17. It has been known that dead human bodies continue to fart and burp even after 3 hours of their death.
18. ”Flatulists” are people who fart for a living, such as Mr. Methane.
19. Professional Fart Smellers in China can earn up to $50,000 a year, by diagnosing digestive diseases through the smell of a person’s flatulence.
20. People from the South American tribe Yanomami greet each other with a loud and friendly fart.
21. Man’s best friends, dogs, adore the aroma of farts, which is why they often poke their snout in your bottom to get a sniff.
22. One patented brand of legume-based snack claims to possess the beans’ nutrition without causing the known gasses otherwise caused by beans.
23. There are a few companies like Shreddies, which produce fart-filtering underwear and garments that supposedly trap bad smells.
24. certain pills make flatulence smell like roses or chocolate. But there are natural alternatives to reduce the bad odor produced by farts, such as ginger, peppermint, and cardamom.
25. When on an airplane, more intestinal gas builds up as a result of the cabin pressure, and as half of the air in the cabin is recirculated, these smelly gases will be there longer than usual.
26. Animals fart too. Termites are the number one farters on the planet. Herrings are said to communicate through farting, and female Southern Pine Beetles attract mates with the magic of farting.
27. The technology might progress, but people continue to regress by creating more and more iPhone apps that recreate farting sounds. Currently, there are 60 such apps.
28. Chewing gum and drinking a lot of soda produces more gases.
29. As you might guess, men release these smelly gases more than women.
30. It is almost impossible to release gasses in the deep blue sea, at depths of 33 or more feet below the sea level.
