What Causes Your Gas to Stink?

Everyone passes gas, even if people do not want to admit it. While passing gas can be embarrassing, it is a natural process. Unfortunately, intestinal gas often has an unpleasant odor that contributes to social embarrassment.

What Is flatulence?

• Flatulence is a natural biological process.

  Flatulence, sometimes called "farting," is the release of gas from your digestive system through your anus. This gas actually consists of five gases: nitrogen, carbon dioxide, oxygen, methane and hydrogen sulfide. While many of these gases are flammable, they are also odorless, except for hydrogen sulfide.

What Causes Flatulence?

• Bacteria in the intestines contribute to the body's internal gas.

  The intestinal gas that is released as flatulence has several sources, including swallowed air, gas that diffuses from your blood, gas produced by chemical reactions in your intestines and gas produced by intestinal bacteria. The bacteria in your intestines help digest certain foods, but they also produce gases during the process.

Sulfur Causes Flatulence to Stink

• Sulfur is the chemical that causes flatulence to stink.

  Flatulence has an unpleasant odor because of the hydrogen sulfide gas that it contains. More specifically, the sulfur component of hydrogen sulfide is responsible for the smell. Pure sulfur smells like rotten eggs, thereby explaining the putrid smell of flatulence.

Certain Foods Can Worsen the Smell of Flatulence

• Cauliflower can worsen the smell of flatulence.

  Foods that are rich in sulfur can contribute to the unpleasant odor of flatulence, since your digestive system cannot break down the sulfur in such foods. These types of foods include cauliflower, eggs, beans, cabbage, cheese and meat. The more you eat of these sulfur-rich foods, the worse your flatulence will smell.