Do Vegan farts smell bad?
The smell of people’s gas is highly dependant on what we eat and for vegans, if following a healthy diet, often the gas can be benign with very little to no noticeable odor. Meat is a large contributor to the bad odor of gas and cutting this from our diet can go a long way to eradicating the smell of our farts.
Meat stays in the system much longer than vegetables and other plant based products. This allows more time for bacteria, and in turn foul odor, to form while the waste is in the human body. Plant based material on the other hand flows through the body and out quicker, giving it less time to produce bacteria.
But to properly answer if vegan farts smell bad you must also look into their diet and whether it is a healthy one or not. If the person in question gorges on highly processed vegan junk food expect their farts to smell like the excretions of a waste processing plant, similar to a heavy meat eater. However, if the vegan is eating a good healthy diet of whole-grains and fresh fruit and vegetables they can be expected to have beuatiful air freshener farts.
The old computer programming adage of garbage in, garbage out rings true here!
Do vegans fart more?
It is a common joke that vegans are gassy. This is certainly not pure anti-vegan propaganda. It is true that vegans can fart more. As a vegan myself going on 2+ years now I can say I noticed it a lot to begin with but over time it has settled down where I can’t say I notice farting more than I did before the vegan diet.
Newer vegans will often comment on a large increase in their farting levels and you often see this question asked on the internet as to whether it is normal. The more seasoned vegan respondents will usually reply that it settled down with time. Going vegan is often a large change to the system for those raised on a high meat western diet. It is no surprise that it will give something of a shock to the system but this does not mean it is anything to be concerned about. On the contrary! We can view it as the body cranking up to its natural state of vigorous health after having been abused for so long.
Do vegans fart more than meat eaters?
You may ask this yourself and yes most likely they do. A recent study of vegan males found that they farted 7 times more than omnivores in a given day. Is this a bad thing? No! Some level of gas is good. To have a certain level of gas indicates good bowel function.
None at all or very little indicates slow bowel function which causes constipation amongst other health issues. Anyone who has tried a heavy meat diet, such as a low carb diet, will tell you it really backs you up. That is why those on a keto diet have to supplement with large volumes of fibre. The fibre is able to work that meat through the system that would otherwise stick in their gut, only working through very slowly.
The idea of farting being a sign of poor health is ill conceived. This is likely due to the West’s reliance of heavy meat eating normalising the general citizen’s state of less gas through slower bowel function. So rather than asking "do vegans fart more than meat eaters?", we should, rather, be asking, “what is the ideal level of farting for a healthy adult?”.
Why do vegans fart so much?
As the vegan diet is a high fibre diet it is this that is said to be the cause of the added flatulence. Not only fibre but also beans and legumes are said to cause large amounts of gas.
Legumes are a great addition to your vegan diet as they are low in fat and high in protein and fibre so certainly don’t avoid them!
If you want to avoid the associated gas that can come with eating legumes – again this I do not notice any more after having been vegan for some time – you can soak your beans in advance. The fermentable sugars on the surface of beans are what cause the gas so an easy fix is to soak and rinse your beans before cooking to remove much of this.
Healthy foods for the sensitive digestive system
If you still want to know good foods to have to avoid these issues if maybe you are just starting out on the vegan path or generally your stomach is just sensitive to this then here are some suggestions. From my own experience rice is a very neutral thing as well as other whole grains like oatmeal. None stringy vegetables are also good and neutral on the gut from my experience. Avoid string vegetables like celery and kale as they are great for activating your digestive system and in turn can give you excess gas if you are prone to issues.
If making stews try something like a carrot stew instead of lentils or pearl barley which are two gassy culprits. Potatoes both regular and sweet are good and there exists a very wide range of recipes which can be made with them.
Excercising for general health
Walking, running and other aerobic exercise can be good to work out that gas which may have built up through sitting sedentary for too long. In our current lifestyle we mostly sit at our computer way too long, clocking long hours in the name of work or just mindless entertainment.
I try to get out walking at least 1-2 hours in my day to break things up. Sometimes I take longer walks out in the countryside for extended periods of 6 hours or more. In these cases I find that my whole body gets to reconnect itself not only spiritually but also physically. It allows me to tune in and center myself and this can also have the knock on effect of correcting any physical issues I may have been having from sitting around the home too much.