Curious Kids: why do some farts smell and a few don’t? And why do some farts feel hot?

Why do some farts smell and a few don’t, and a few feel hot? – Kian, age 6, from Maleny in Queensland

Hi Kian, thanks to your interesting questions!

Let’s start with the smell. Whether or not farts smell relies on what you’ve been eating and whether or not you’ve gotten an upset tummy.

Having a tummy bug also can change the smell of your pooespecially if you’ve gotten diarrhoea (runny poo). This is due to smell of undigested food and the bugs, too.

---

---

Really smelly farts

When you digest food your intestines produce gas as a part of the conventional technique of breaking food down.

Most gasses produced – like carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen and methane – don’t smell in any respect. That is why you’ll be able to fart sometimes and no person really notices.

But there’s one gas present in some farts that’s smelly. It’s called hydrogen sulphide and has the nickname “rotten egg gas” because that is precisely what it smells like.

This is why sometimes you’ll be able to do a small fart but everyone has to carry their nose. These smelly farts contain hydrogen sulphide.

Food and farts

If you eat foods which have numerous sulphur, your gut will produce more hydrogen sulphide.

Some vegetables have numerous sulphursimilar to broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, turnips and Asian greens.

Meat does too. If you eat a very huge piece of meat, your body can have trouble digesting it abruptly.

As you digest food, it moves out of your stomach into the large intestine or colon. Once the foods with sulphur get there, bugs in your gut break them down and produce the hydrogen sulphide gas.

If numerous it builds up and gets released in a fart, it should be very, very smelly.

---

---

So why do farts sometimes feel hot?

Farts sometimes feel hot due to temperature difference between inside your body, which is a really warm 37 degrees, and the air temperature outside, which is often cooler.

This signifies that fart gas feels hot because it moves out of your large intestine, leaves through the opening in your bottom called the anusand touches the cooler skin.

You’re not as more likely to notice the temperature if farts comes out really fast because speedy ones don’t have as much contact along with your bottom.

There is another excuse why farts can feel hot. Sometimes people get a hot or burning feeling of their bottom after they eat really spicy food. This is resulting from a spicy food chemical called capsaicin.

If you eat food that has chilli or hot spices in it, the capsaicin makes your mouth feel hot. When you eat lots and a lot of spicy food, a number of the capsaicin travels all of the method to your large intestine and gets passed out in your poo.

The capsaicin then gives you a hot feeling in your bottom once you go to the bathroom. The response is identical as that burning feeling in your mouth after eating spicy food, except it happens at the opposite end.

Did there are fart-proof undies?

Researchers did some experiments to check whether or not they could catch fart smells by getting people to wear special undies that may absorb hydrogen sulphide gas.

And the experiments worked!

Now a company in Australia sells these undies to assist individuals who have gut problems. Their company says it desires to help people “fart with confidence”.

---

---