What Does Your Poop Say About You?
By Stacey Nolan Young
Colon health has been a topic of interest lately and for good reason. Here, in Hamilton, The Juravinski Cancer Center recently presented the Colossal Colon, a 40-foot long interactive crawl-through model of a colon at Limeridge Mall to kick off Colorectal Cancer Awareness month. This was in an effort to educate people on good colon health and prevention.
So let’s talk about one aspect of this topic that is considered taboo by many. In fact, the mere thought of it can make some people squirm. And unfortunately this is one of the reasons we need to be more vocal and get over our stigmas. Perhaps talking about it and becoming less uncomfortable doing so can prevent problems from becoming worse and at the end of the scale, maybe it can prevent death. Prevention is key when it comes to colon diseases and that may mean that you need to endure talking about your bowel movements, giving fecal samples or even enduring a colonoscopy.
Keeping Your Colon Healthy
There are things you can do on your own to keep an eye on your colon and look out for your health.
- Drinking plenty of water to aid in digestion is extremely important. The body has a keen ability to extract water from its own organs when it is dehydrated in order to function properly. Unfortunately, one of the first places the body looks to for water is our feces. And extracting water from there can cause constipation and worse. So get in a solid amount of H20.
- Do I even need to say what you should and shouldn’t be eating? But you know I will anyway! Avoid processed foods as your body has a tough time recognizing these as food and processing the various chemicals in them. Eat plenty of fibre. So that means lots of vegetables and fruits throughout the day. The cavemen had a lot of things right way back when. Eat what the earth provides and you will be healthy.
- Caffeine is an irritant to the colon. This is why you’ve probably heard of coffee enemas. These work to stimulate peristalsis of the colon in order to empty the bowels. So cut down on your intake as it also acts as a diuretic which can discount some of the water you’ve been drinking.
- My next advice is to keep an eye on your bowel movements. Yes, you read that correctly. Believe it or not, your poop can tell you a lot of information and can direct you to make changes to your diet. My all time favourite education tool about this topic comes from one of the people I most look up to in the fitness and holistic health industry, Paul Chek. If this intrigues you at all, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of his book titled How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy
Let’s begin with an illustration from this book. This illustration is titled “The Poopie Policeman – The Poop Lineup”.
What does this mean? Well let me break it down for you here:
Poopie Policeman (far right) – He represents the proper bowel movement. He is light brown, well shaped and easy to pass. He will float without requiring multiple flushes. He shouldn’t stink but rather smell natural and almost earthy.
According to Paul Chek, a person should pass a total of 12 inches of poop per day. This doesn’t necessarily mean in one “sitting” but it can be divided up throughout the day. And they should all be “poopie policemen”.
But let’s get down to the nastier bowel movements and what they may mean for you. We’ll start with the far left and move right through the line up.
Mr. Sinker ‘n’ Stinker – This guy will not go unnoticed as he can clear a bathroom faster than you can flush. He smells foul and wretched, he is dark in colour and he is a sign that you should take steps to detoxify your body. He is a product of processed foods, toxins or medical drugs so as suggested above, reduce your intake of processed foods!
Olympic Swimmer – While the last one will sink to the bottom, this guy tends to float and requires several flushes to get him down. He is lighter in colour than your optimal poop due to a high content of undigested fats. He may indicate a deficiency in bile, which helps to break down fats.
The Body Builder – This big guy is hard to pass due to his diameter. He is thick and “built” and may require some straining to let loose. This is probably caused by eating too many dehydrated and processed foods. Protein bars and shakes can be the culprits here so I suggest to you that REAL foods are always a better option.
Pellet Man – You’ll recognize this guy if you’ve ever been on the toilet and felt like you’d turned into a rabbit. If you are dehydrated and your body tries to move your stool through the colon by peristalsis (wave-like contractions that move food along your digestive tract) then it creates pellet like stool.
Diarrhella – This is the liquid guy. And believe it or not, this is your body’s desperate attempt at detoxifying itself. This guy shouldn’t be ignored if he hangs around and especially if you alternate between constipation and diarrhea. It’s time for a change to your diet!
The Flasher – This guy likes to show his true colours, meaning undigested food particles. This is not normal and can be a sign of food intolerances or an inflammatory disorder of the digestive system.
There you have it, Paul Chek’s Poopie Line Up. Now you know what to look for when you go to the bathroom. And please stop being embarrassed about talking to your doctor if you experience any unusual bowel movements.
Detecting something early can save your life. That is much more important than preserving your pride for a few minutes, don’t you think? Also – to those over the age of 50, you should be getting your Fecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT) every two years. Screening is part of your daily health so please don’t put it off.
So don’t flush away everything you’ve learned here. Put it to good use!
Add comment April 22nd, 2009