1. Only 1% of yourfartactually smells.Yup — even that little one that no one heard but everyone in a1,000 mileradius smelled.99% of thatfartwas odorlessgaseslikecarbon dioxide, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and methane. That leaves 1% of the smelly stuff, hydrogen sulfide. And considering how bad your farts can smell sometimes (just admit it), that hydrogen sulfide is some pretty strong stuff!
2. Certain foods make your farts smell worse than others.When you eat sulfur rich foods like eggs and meat, your farts will smell worse because that food breaks down and creates hydrogen sulfide, AKA, rotten egg gas.
3. Women's farts smell worse than men's.As hard as it is to believe, it's true.Although women and men produce the same amount of flatulence,a study conducted by Dr. Levittfound that women's farts consistently contain significantly greater concentrations of hydrogen sulfide — the stuff that makes them smell.
4. You probably don't fart as much as you think you do. Often, people go to their doctor complaining of having too much gas, but chances are, you're just imagining it. These people are often told to gohome and keep a record of when they fart in a journal. Flatologist Michael Levitt, M.D. found thatmost of these people fall within the normal range of farts per day (see #5) and "they simply have to be informed of their 'normality.'"
5. Most people fart about 14 to 22 times a day.Yeah, if someone tells you they don't fart, they're lying. Or else there's something seriously wrong...
6. Fart jokes are timeless. The oldest joke in history is actually a fart joke. It's anancient Sumerian proverb dating back to 1900 BC that says, "Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap." *ba-boom tsssss*
7. Farts can explode. As ridiculous as it seems when someone sets their fart on fire in those wildly popular bro-y comedy flicks, your farts really ARE flammable. Two chemicals in farts, methane and hydrogen,are flammable, which is what makes it possible to make a small explosion if you hold a lighter up to your butt when you fart. Not saying you should though. In fact, definitely don't unless you want to risk burning yourself or starting a fire. It's really not that funny.
8. Farts are really fast.They've clocked in at 3.05 meters per second, which is roughly 7 miles per hour. That's faster than your standard hoverboardbtw, which are also, coincidentally, flammable.
9. You're not the only one whose farts go weird places. A woman took to Reddit to ponder something strange thathappened to her when she farted, asking, "Do you ever fart and the fart goes past your vagin* and your labia moves?" Perhaps she thought she was the only one who hadexperienced thisfarting phenomenon, but turns out, she isn't. Hundreds of women responded to her post, revealing they too had experienced it. Apparently, this phenomenon has a name too. It's called a "vart".
10. Vegetarians fart more than non-vegetarians.Apparently,it's because of all the beans they eat.Beans containcarbohydratesmade of molecules that are too large to be absorbed in our small intestine during digestion so they pass into the large intestine stillintact. This leads toan increase in certain bacteria in the lower intestine to break down the beans, whichproduces large amounts of hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide gas. But hey, if meat eaters have to suffer from smelly farts (see #2), it's only fair vegetarians have to fart more!
11. Your butt can tell the difference between a fart and poop.The tactile nerve endings in your rectal areacan distinguish between thedifferent sensations depending on if it's air that needs to exit or stool. The only exception is when you have the runs and your poop is more of a liquid consistency, which confuses said nerve endings and may result in a bit of an accident.
12. Holding in farts isn't harmful. You're not going to explodeor anything. Sooner or later your body is going to get that air out.
13. Farting isn't gross.Sure, it seems gross because they often smell like rotten eggs, but it's just something a healthy human body does — a normal byproduct of your body digesting food.
So, in the future, your first reaction to a fart shouldn't be to hold it in:
It should be to LET IT GO.
Noelle Devoe
Entertainment Editor
When I'm not holed up in my room going on a completely unproductive Netflix binge or Tumblr stalking Timothée Chalomet, I'm searching for awesome celeb news stories that Seventeen readers will love!
