Excerpted from "A Year of Health Hints"
365 Practical Ways to Feel Better and Live Longer
Flatulence may be perfectly natural and something that
everyone gets, but if you have more than your share, it's a major
Where does all that gas come from, anyway? Often, it comes
from swallowing air. It's also generated by intestinal bacteria
that produce carbon dioxide and hydrogen (both odorless, by the
way) in the course of breaking down carbohydrates and proteins in
the food you eat. The problem is minute quantities of other, more
pungent gases that gives flatus its characteristic odor. Eating
certain foods, like peas, beans, and certain grains produces
noticeably more gas than eating other foods.
Common sense says eliminating foods that are considered
notorious gas-producers (or eating them in small quantities) can
go a long way to ward reducing excess flatulence.
Well-known offenders include:
The medication simethicone may help reduce flatulence by
dispersing gas pockets (and preventing more from forming). It has
no known side effects. Simethicone is available by prescription
as well as over the counter under the brand name Mylicon.
Gas may signal a variety of other problems worth looking into:
intolerance (inability to properly digest milk, cheese, and other
dairy products). (See Tip
113 in chapter 4,
Eating for Better Health.)
overgrowth in the intestines (often caused by certain
contraction in the colon.