There are certain questions people Google with the moral posture of a raccoon digging through trash. “How much farting is normal?” is absolutely one of them.
Now scientists have an answer, because apparently this was a data hole waiting to be filled.
A new study published in JAMA Network Open looked at flatulence among 6,416 adults in Australia using an app called Chart Your Fart. Participants logged 360,192 gas “outputs,” a phrase so clinical it almost distracts from the fact that thousands of adults were reporting farts into their phones. “No, bro, I’m just updating my outputs.”
Lead study author Emily Brindal, PhD, told Yahoo Health the project started with a simple problem. “There was no clear answer to the simple question of, ‘How much does the average person fart?’”
The answer, according to the study, is usually two to seven times a day. Men reported an average of 5.2 farts per day, while women reported 4.8. People ages 14 to 25 reported fewer daily releases than older adults, and gas usually peaked in the morning, after lunch, and near bedtime. In other words, your body has scheduled programming.
The study also gets into the social side of farting, because the body may produce gas, but people still decide when to let it out and when to pretend the couch made a noise.
Brindal told Yahoo Health that farting is “also a behavior because it is something over which we hold conscious control.” She added that “sociocultural standards factor in,” meaning men and women may report or release gas differently based on how they’ve learned to behave in public.
That part feels painfully believable. Men throw out farts left and right. Women get trained to act like their digestive systems operate under Victorian etiquette rules.
Is Your Farting Normal, Though?
Doctors say the fart chart could help people who worry they’re abnormal. Gastroenterologist Dr. Aditya Sreenivasan said the findings could give patients “a benchmark for what is considered ‘normal.’”
It could also help people notice their own food triggers. Beans, dairy, broccoli, onions, carbonated drinks, and some sweeteners can all turn digestion into a rude little episode.
Most gas comes with the territory of having intestines. But gas paired with other symptoms deserves attention. Dr. Ketan Thanki told Yahoo Health that unexplained weight loss, rectal bleeding, lack of appetite, worsening abdominal pain, nighttime GI symptoms, or severe bloating should prompt a doctor visit.
Smelly gas with diarrhea and bloating can also point to conditions like celiac disease, pancreatic insufficiency, or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.
For everyone else, the chart offers a strangely useful answer to an embarrassing question. Two to seven farts a day appear pretty normal. Annoying for anyone around you, perhaps, but medically unremarkable.
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