A burp is air from inside you coming back up and out of your mouth.
Here is the first way in. You swallow a little air every time you eat and drink.
You can swallow more air if you eat or drink fast. Chewing gum does it too.
Talking while you eat can make you swallow more air too.
Drinks with bubbles have gas bubbles in them. Those bubbles can come back up as burps.
A fart is gas from inside your belly that comes out of your bottom. Some of it is made by tiny helpful germs.
These germs are called bacteria. They live in your large intestine. They break down food your body could not digest, and that makes gas.
Some foods make more gas than others. Beans are a good example.
Milk, cheese or ice cream can give some people extra gas. Their bodies have trouble with the sugar in milk, called lactose.
Most gas has no smell at all. The stinky part comes from gases that have sulfur in them.
Most people pass gas up to about 20 times a day. Everybody has gas, and it is a normal part of how a body works.
Words to know
- bacteria: tiny living things
- intestine: long food tube
- lactose: milk sugar
- sulfur: smelly stuff
