Passing gas can save your life! There is such a social tabu on farting that people are willing to slowly kill themselves in order to be socially acceptable. A simple “Quack!” at a social gathering completely disrupts the conversational flow as full grown adults revert to giggling teenagers.
Passing gas is healthy, do it MORE!
If you are *not* farting, shame on you, eat more fiber because it could save your life. Fibrous foods are the most common culprit in gas production so many people avoid them – things like vegetables, fruits and legumes. Trouble is, those are the precise foods that are most important to eat to prevent disease and keep you alive and healthy! The antioxidants in vegetables and fruits appear to be essential to preventing cancer. The fiber in all of them not only reduces the risk of colon cancer but recent research seems to indicate that people who eat a lot of fiber after a heart attack increase their survival rate by 25%.
So ask yourself, do you want to die quietly or live noisily? Eat your fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains!!!!
Changing social norms
So realistically, how do you handle passing gas? What do you do when a really interesting and fun conversation is completely derailed by the giggling caused by your gas? For decades I have had a very high fiber diet and because of that, have released a *lot* of gas so I have a lot of experience here. First, don’t apologize for it, it’s nothing to be sorry for. Not only that, it calls unnecessary attention to the event, wastes time, and interrupts good conversation. If I said “Oh, excuse me!” after every release nobody could get a word in edgewise. Second, if anyone else comments on it, completely ignore the comment and continue with the current conversation. Once people figure that you are not embarrassed about passing gas and they get no reaction from you at all, most people will eventually stop the comments. If they continue, then it might be time to explain to them that it is THEY who have the problem because they don’t fart enough and that they should eat more legumes, fruits, and vegetables for their health.
Note that I am not advocating fart-pride either. Lifting a cheek in order to get maximum volume and reverberance is not called for. Please just muffle it.