Embarrassing Illnesses

There are three main causes of excessive flatulence:

• swallowing more air than usual,
• eating food that is difficult to digest, and
• having an underlying health condition that affects your digestive system.

Swallowing air

While it is perfectly normal to swallow air during breathing and eating, it is easy to swallow a lot more air than usual without realising it. This can lead to symptoms of excessive flatulence.

Ways that an excess amount of air can be swallowed include:

• chewing gum,
• smoking,
• sucking on pen tops, and
• not chewing food slowly and thoroughly (swallowing large lumps of food will result in you swallowing more air).

Hot and fizzy drinks will also increase the amount of carbon dioxide in your stomach, although this is more likely to lead to symptoms of belching than flatulence.

Food

Much of the food that you eat is carbohydrates, which are made up of long chains of sugar molecules.

Some carbohydrates cannot be digested and absorbed in the intestines, and pass down into your colon.

These types of carbohydrates are known as unabsorbable carbohydrates. 

Your colon is home to over 500 different types of bacteria. The bacteria begin to break down the carbohydrates and, in the process, produce gas which is released as flatulence.

Foods that contain a high amount of unabsorbable carbohydrates include:

• beans,
• broccoli,
• cabbage,
• cauliflower,
• artichokes,
• raisins,
• pulses,
• lentils,
• prunes,
• apples, and
• Brussel sprouts.

Slimming products that contain the sugar substitute, sorbitol, or fructose (a type of sugar) can also cause flatulence because both sorbitol and fructose are unabsorbable carbohydrates. Many fruit juices also contain high levels of fructose.

As many of the foods that contain unabsorbable carbohydrates are digested over a longer period of time, any undigested food can eventually begin to decompose. This releases a small amount of sulphar gas which causes the foul smell that is associated with flatulence.

Health conditions

Health conditions that can cause symptoms of flatulence include:

• constipation,
• irritable bowel syndrome (IBS),
• coeliac disease - a condition that is caused by a food intolerance to a protein called gluten and is found in wheat, rye, and barley, and
• lactose intolerance - lactose is a natural sugar that is found in milk.