"Fragrant" gas...

[LauraVeg]

Laura, this looks like it's doable within McDougall! There is a long list of vegetables that are low in FODMAPs.

will you try tweaking the McD plan using low fodmap food? that would be great!

Wow, that's weird. The post you're responding to is missing.

[Christine in Cali]

I notice that sometimes when I respond the post goes missing too....hmm

LauraVeg....good to see your back and trying to figure this all out. I have come to accept my gassiness but I live alone so there is no one to offend. Chickpeas are the worst for me even if it's hummus

[nofriendofYale]

My experience is the opposite of LauraVeg. I have not once noticed stinky gas on McDougall. Gas, yes; but stink no. I have never been on a low-carb diet, but for my decades, 5 of them, on SAD, I often passed stinky gas.

From reading McD's book Digestive Tune Up, I gather that there are essentially 3 causes of intestinal gas:

1. sugars that are not digestible such as some found in beans,
2. fiber, and
3. protein putrefaction usually caused by the over consumption of protein as in the SAD diet.

The first two produce odorless gas, the 3rd stinks, depending on how much sulfur-containing amino acids are in the foods consumed.

I assume that all of the smelly gas problems I had on a daily basis as a kid, and for the first 50 years of my life, had to do with over consumption of protein. I remember in college in Mexico, my breakfast of choice was refried beans and eggs. Two high protein foods together, one of them loaded in sulfur. A recipe for disaster which I experienced on a daily basis.

So I have no idea what is happening with LauraVeg, but my experience has been the exact opposite.

Is there any chance you are supplementing McDougall with some kind of protein supplement?

[NancyD]

I gave up my consumption of 1 Russet potato each day and replaced it with 2 small red potatoes each day and that eliminated the gas. Also staying away from sugar helps greatly. I've fallen into eating sugar again this past week and have been stricken with gas again. So I'm learning my lesson slowly. You have to experiment and see what works for you.

[bunsofaluminum]

I gave up my consumption of 1 Russet potato each day and replaced it with 2 small red potatoes each day and that eliminated the gas. Also staying away from sugar helps greatly. I've fallen into eating sugar again this past week and have been stricken with gas again. So I'm learning my lesson slowly. You have to experiment and see what works for you.

I wonder if that's where my gas comes from. I ate some sugary stuff yesterday and today I'm HORRID stinky. Hm. The sugar, I mean. I need to stay away from the stuff. PERIOD.

[GeoffreyLevens]

why does everyone ignore the fact that I (and others) have NO stinky problem when eating meat?

From what I know, a so far unmentioned here issue, is that intestinal flora composition will vary with the diet. This does take time, but a vegan will have different dominant critters than a lacto-veg, who is again different in there from a omni/carnivore. If your g.i. tract is conditioned by past habit to one type of diet, there will be some havoc for awhile during the change over. I used to have horrible problems from beans. I now know this was most likely because I did not have enough of the intestinal microbes present to digest/ferment the resistant starch. Now beans give me no problem. When I first started in with McDougall diet I though I would explode. My wife was none too pleased either but most everyone else was too polite to comment Now I doubt I have any more gas than most (3 years down the line). No telling what would happen if I ate a steak!!!

[Kiki]

Why would plants in the bowels smell worse than animal tissues?

Why would putrafacation (decomposing of animal foods) smell better than fermentation of carbohydrates? Makes no sense.

My observation is our gas smells better. Maybe others would like to weight in.

The other thing to consider is you have something else wrong - like bleeding in the bowels produces foul smells.

John McDougall, MD

Could the problem be one of nutrient density?

Table III of this old study on the sulfur content of various foods lists 100 g of raw steak as having 203 mg of sulfur, and 100 g of boiled spinach as having 86.5 mg. However, when I look up the calories, I find that 100 g of lean strip steak has 117 calories, while 100 g of boiled spinach has 23 calories. When adjusted for equivalent calories, the spinach has 440 mg of sulfur to the steak's 117 mg.

So, if "[t]he offensive odors of flatus are caused by tiny amounts of sulfur-containing gases" as you say in a 2002 newsletter, wouldn't it not only be possible, but even plausible that some people would have worse gas on a vegan diet?

I have the worst gas on this diet than I have had eating any other way, although I have never tried any low-carb style diets for comparison.