When you’re in a new relationship with a person who still thinks you’re perfect and wonderful and never, ever smelly, it can be mortifying the first time you let some gas slip in their presence.
Especially if you ate some brussels sprouts for dinner. Yikes.
Not that I would know.
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Luckily, though, science and psychology are coming to your aid – because farting in front of your significant other is actually a good thing.
First of all, it lets the other person know that you’re healthy. A person who does not fart at all isn’t eating much aside from refined sugars, so if you’re letting them rip, at least he/she knows you take eating your vegetables seriously.
Second, a study a few years back found that the chemical compound called AP39, linked to hydrogen sulfide (which leads to stinky toots), is good for cells. It is true that most scientists will stop short of telling you it’s good for you – but it’s not going to harm you, certainly.
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Third, couples who laugh together stay together, and – setting aside whether or not laughing at farts is immature – farts are funny.
There have actually been studies done on fart humor, with one finding that humor is rooted in dominance, meaning that letting one rip is a (hilarious) way of asserting yourself. Another used incongruity theory to state that inappropriate things often make us laugh. A third theory is that people laugh to relieve the awkward tension that ensues when another person hears your gas explosion.
Fun Fact: Women’s farts smell worse than men’s do.
Dr. Michael D Levitt, who has published over 275 papers on the topic, says that female toots have a naturally higher concentration of hydrogen sulfide.
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And the last reason to just let it all hang out when you’re with someone you love and trust?
It’s a good one…
Holding farts in could make the come out of your mouth.
Yeah.
If you hold it in, the gas gets reabsorbed into your body and can end up being released instead as horrible breath.
I don’t know about you, but that last reason alone is reason enough for me to shrug and laugh the next time my husband goes into a fit of dramatics at the smell.
Ain’t marriage grand?
