We all have gas and need to pass it so what is it that makes this natural process so traumatic in those with irritable bowel syndrome? There is a difference and it is not the amount of gas we accumulate. Watch my video to find out what the issue is.
The Transcript
Today I’m going to talk about flatulence or passing wind in people with irritable bowel syndrome.
Flatulence or passing wind, breaking wind, passing gas, farting, however you want to call it. The medical term is flatus, F-L-A-T-U-S.
How does this happen? It happens by the contracting of the muscles in the intestine and the colon which pushes the wind down towards the rectum.
How do we get the gas inside of us? It can be from swallowing air, and that can be because we are talking while we’re eating, or we’re eating too fast and gulping in air or we’re eating in a stressed situation. It can also be from the foods or drinks that we consume. For example, carbonated drinks have got a lot of gas in them and therefore that gas of course goes into our digestive system. Also, smoothies. When you make a smoothie, you just about double the volume of the ingredients and the rest of that is gas so that’s going to be going into your intestine as well. And the third way is through the fermentation of undigested food in the bowel, which should have been digested in the small intestine, but has passed down directly into the bowel and has been fermented there causing gas.
The interesting thing is that they have done research on how much gas a person with irritable bowel syndrome has compared to somebody who doesn’t have IBS, and there is no difference. So, even though the amount of gas that a person has can vary quite considerably, and the average amount of passing wind is 15 to 25 times a day with men passing more wind than women, there is quite a lot of variety. But overall, people with irritable bowel syndrome do not have more gas or pass more wind than somebody without it. What they did discover, though, was that the distribution of that gas in the body is different, and that in people with IBS the gas tends to pool or form in pockets and this causes the distention or the bloating. The other thing is that with the same amount of gas in the body, the person without IBS doesn’t feel it as pain, whereas those of us with IBS actually feel it as pain. And that’s the incorrect signals going between the brain and the gut – our faulty signals.
That’s what we know about passing gas and that it really is no different in those of us with IBS or without except for the distribution of it and the way that we react to it, that we feel it as painful whereas another person doesn’t. I hope that’s helped sort out the fact that we do have to pass some gas. It is not abnormal to pass wind at all.
Hi! Suzanne, I’ve looked thru your recipes and don’t find any recipe for Spelt Sourdough Bread which I understand is OK to eat on a Low-Fod Map diet. Are there no frutans in Spelt Wheat? I also don’t see a Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour Mix. Is it possible for me to obtain this as well as the Spelt Sourdough Bread Recipe. What I see available to purchase in the store has gums and other things that aren’t Low-Fod Map. Thank you very much.
There sure isn’t a sourdough spelt recipe on my blog. LOL. You need a starter and a couple of days to make it. Also spelt flour is hard to find. Spelt flour has less fructans than the more modern wheat. We can eat 2 slices of spelt sourdough bread because there are less fructans but also because the long process means that much of the fermentation takes place outside the body so there is not much left that will happen inside the body. If you can find a bakery that makes it fresh, that will be a win.
I do have all purpose flour mixes which are part of many of my recipes, but the best one I have found for keeping the baked goods light is 1.3 cups rice flour, 0.3 cup of tapioca flour and 0.3 cup potato starch.
Hi Suzanne,
Thanks for your info on the flatulence. I must be the only IBS suffer with it. It’s the worst of it for me. And embarrassing!! I seem to be able to keep the other IBS systems at bay with good eating (low fodmap foods.) You mention smoothies. I have been having a green juice a couple of times a week. Flatulence was not good before I started having them anyway. Would just a very small glass of green juice a day be okay? (kale,spinach,cucumber.)
Thank you for your generous information. Kate
I would definitely stop the green smoothies. They will cause a lot of wind. If you think about the fact that we can only have 1 cup of raw kale – that would make a very small smoothie. If you add 3 Fodmap-containing foods together at their permitted amounts then you have 3 times the Fodmaps you should be ingesting at any one time and that means trouble.