No flatulence when travelling

Digestive health
1

I always had a significant amount of flatulences since I was a teenager and all the way to my 40’s here in Switzerland, a country with a lot of cheese and dairy in our diet, and I noticed I had much less during a trip in South America.
As the only time I had flatulence during that trip was a day I had a glass of milk, I zeroed out dairy as the potential culprit and adopted a dairy-free diet, unfortunately without much success.
These last years, I traveled to other countries, such as the Caucasus region (Georgia and Armenia), Iran and Central Asia, which all have a reputation for balanced diets and, indeed, I had no flatulence at all.
Coming back from these places, I tried to adopt their diet: breakfast with wholegrain bread, lunch and diner with variations of couscous consisting of mostly vegetables and bulgur or rice, but again to no avail.
I’m starting to wonder if this difference between important flatulence at home and no flatulence during travel comes from other parameters than the food. For example, I’m much more active during a trip (visiting stuff all day long) than at home where I’m mostly sedentary (working from home, having a quick stroll to the supermarket). I’m not particularly stress here, so it cannot come from this.

Any hint?

Thanks

2

probably creating a food diary and following it would make it day and night. and yes different parts of world means different requirements… aka beef and butter in Ireland is much higher quality then in easter Europe. - example. that maY have impact on your guts

btw nice job you must have…traveling around world..

3

It’s an interesting question :slight_smile:
From your nick I’d venture to guess that you are a man, so we’ll set aside the possible hormone fluctuations during the month.

Life-style matters and being more physically active can make a difference.
But, I’d like to ask you about the quality of food you are eating in Switzerland.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s not.
People living in less developed areas may have produce of a better quality.
I moved to the West almost 20 years ago and my digestive problems have started about then.
In my country, which is no longer the case, we hadn’t had a highly industrialized food industry.

If you live in a city and do your shopping in supermarkets even green-markets, you are most likely to buy produce that has been treated with pesticides, hormones… not to mention that it is not ripe when harvested or even sufficiently mature when slaughtered.Even the type of grain matters, when it comes to cereals and vegetables.

He are some of the things I noticed:

-I cannot digest garlic from China;

-the type of wheat you are most likely to find in all the breads you buy (even if you buy them in chic bakeries!) does not come from old varieties and it is richer in starch and gluten (not to mention that these days gluten itself is added to baked goods to make them look fresh for longer periods of time);

  • highly processed dairy products (and I live in France!) - first of all the milk comes from huge dairy farms where cows are pumped with all sorts of antibiotics (ruining your gut bacteria balance) and hormones, then they process it in the way that saves them money - they add powdered milk to yogurt (even in organic ones!);

  • meat and eggs… hormones, antibiotics… I started getting flatulent from beef, my hormones went wild from poultry…

So, a couple of years ago we started spending more time in the country (in the regional park, where no pesticides or hormone treatments are allowed, where cattle grazes and moves freely on the pastures…) and we discovered a wonderful world of local producers, who first and foremost produce food for themselves! I reintroduced certain types of food I avoided like plague in the city (meat, dairy, bread…)
No more flatulence from meat and cereals!
Dairy stopped giving me hormonal problems…

The question is, can we afford to eat good quality food (less processed with no additives), especially if we are living in cities?
In France, it is almost impossible. Even if you do your shopping in organic stores.
You would really need to have enough resources (money and time) to go to farms and buy directly from producers. But it’s really complicated…

I didn’t want to make this post this loooong…
Hope it helps :slight_smile:

4

Take a few minute walks at home ,sitting does make for build up gas , so does a lot of grains in your diet . Its strange how different enviroments has an effect on people . Sounds like you have a goid diet plan and if it diesnt hurt your stomach ,well i say let em rip :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

5

Good diet plan *** excuse my typos

6

Interesting point and discussion here!
I have experienced something not unlike what Mick86552 and Masha17 report.
I have struggled with IBD-D for years. It’s been lurking there all the time for 15 or so years (I’m 74), but would subside for a few days every week or two and then kick in again, it seemed to me set off by the basically high gastric acidity which also triggered pyloric stenosis when I was a just a week old. It seemed to be esp. acidic and roughage foods, plus sometimes stress that would tip the IBD over what my system could manage.
Then last September my wife and I travelled in China for 2 weeks, and during that time and for 5 weeks after our return - no IBD! I was thinking my gastric biotica has reestablished themselves again and my GI tract had been purged of Western foods - despite the undoubted truth of what you mention about the standard of Chinese food production.
But during the past 2 weeks the IBD has been back again. Never debilitating, just a big, uncomfortable and unpredictable nuisance. I have filed your comments, and will trial cutting dairy foods out of my diet for a start, and then if necessary the other suspects you mention, Masha17.
Thanks for your input!

7

Maybe it’s your body telling you to find a new home in a new country, somewhere other than Switzerland or simply you aren’t very active and on the go so your body bothers you because it needs activity in order to process the food that you eat.

8

Diet and exercise can influence gas. Try to avoid gassy drinks and vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and Brussels Sprouts. I have always been prone to gas before and after my IBS diagnosis. It doesn’t bother me.