Weird but interesting question: What is a fart?

L

littlebrendel

New member
Exactly what is it, why does the human body perform this action, and it must be something significant for bodily function, or else the body wouldn't do it as much as it does. Thanks for not saying "gross" and that's it because I've seen that and it's a waste of room for sofisticated answers. Please just explain and be done with it and we will all be happy. Thanks again! :)
 
As your food digests the enzymes needed to break up the food produce gasses. These gasses travel with the food through the intestines to the nearest escape route.
 
The food we eat is broken down into its simplest parts for digestion- carbohydrates into glucose, protein into amino acids etc. Once those nutrients have been absorbed we are left with the waste product faeces.

Although this waste product is now useless to us and is making its way through the bowels to the rectum, there are billions of bacteria inside our gut that feast on the faecal matter. Just as humans use glucose in respiration creating water and carbon dioxide (gas) as waste products; so too do the bowel bacteria create gaseous waste products as part of their metabolism.

The main gas waste products are hydrogen and methane. The only way for the gas to escape the bowels is to come out the other end as a fart. Depending on what we eat depends what waste products are left over in the gut. Some foods will be metabolised by bacteria into sulphur gases which makes farts smell the worst.
 
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