Fennel for Flatulence?

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Fennel for Flatulence?

 

" I was pleased with your recommendation to use fennel seeds to

alleviate flatulence. However, the taste is quite bitter.

My vitamin supplier has 380-milligram fennel-seed capsules. Are they

safe to take and will they be as effective? Is fennel tea as

effective as chewing the seeds? "

 

-- Dennis Brewer

 

(Published 04/16/1998)

 

(Published 4/29/97) Before you go to the capsules, I'd try to find

thesugar-coated fennel seeds that are used like after-dinner mints

in India and are often found in Indian restaurants. They taste OK,

even pleasant; look for them in Indian or Asian grocery stores.

 

Fennel tea would also be fine -- as

would anise, chamomile, coriander or caraway tea.

 

There are other herbs that have a reputation as carminatives -- that

is,expellers of gas from the intestinal tract --

 

but fennel is the one I recommend most frequently. I've never used

the fennel-seed capsules. If you try them, let us know how they

work. Acidophilus may also be useful.

 

Stress, worry and tension can add to a gas problem. Antibiotics may

create one,because they destroy normal intestinal flora.

 

Everyone produces some gas every day -- one researcher measured

output at something between a pint and a half-gallon, depending on

the person.

 

One group of men aged 25 to 35 years oldaveraged 13 (plus or minus

four) passages of gas a day.

But another study found an individual who far exceeded that figure

and expelled gas 141 times a day.

 

I wouldn't discourage you from doing your best to get flatulence

under

control,but you ought to know that flatulence once was considered a

sign of strength.

 

Einarr Pambarskelfir, a legendary Icelandic archer especially known

for

hispowerful bow work, carried the nickname " Superfarter, " according

toScandinavian medieval studies expert Anatoly Liberman. In medieval

times,

people who couldn't pass gas were considered weaklings.

 

The German " pimpf " refers to " one who cannot produce a good manly

pumpf (fart), " Liberman says. Inlater times, the famed Frenchman " Le

Petomane " became wealthy by playing tunes

with the sounds of his expelled gas on

the Moulin Rouge stage.

 

Now go take a walk.

 

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