Today’s topic may seem gross, but it’s important so I’m writing about it anyway. Lately I’ve been reading up on bowel movements. I wound up learning more about poop than I had bargained for. 
We pee every day and poop almost daily, so they may seem like mindless activities not worth examining. However, did you know that your poop and pee can provide useful insights to your health? Here’s a useful infographic to understand more about your poop and pee:
![What Your Poop and Pee Are Telling You About Your Body [Infographic]](https://personalexcellence.co/files/infographic-poop-pee.jpg)
(Click image for larger version)
I want to draw your attention to the more serious parts:
- Ideal poop should… (from: About.com)
- Be medium brown, the color of plain cardboard
- Leave the body easily with no straining or discomfort and is the consistency of toothpaste
- Be approximately four to eight inches long (that’s about 10 cm to 20 cm)
- Be sausage-like in shape. Refer to the Bristol Stool Chart below.
- Enter the water smoothly without sticking to the toilet bowl
- Have little gas or odor
- Bristol Stool Chart
- The Bristol Stool Chart is a medical aid used by some doctors to track GI (gastro-intestinal) health among patients:
Bristol Stool Chart (Image)
Generally Types 3 and 4, especially 4, are considered ideal. Types 1 and 2 represent constipation, Types 5 and 6 are making their way to become diarrhea, while Type 7 means you’re having diarrhea (argh)! Use this as an aid to assess the condition of your bowel movements.
- The Bristol Stool Chart is a medical aid used by some doctors to track GI (gastro-intestinal) health among patients:
- Passing pellet-like or hard poop?
- With Types 1 and 2, you are lacking dietary fiber. Introduce more fruits and vegetables and water into your diet. Increasing fiber intake without sufficient water intake will still cause constipation. And that doesn’t mean eating two bananas and drinking one more glass of water and declaring yourself done — you need to make this a permanent lifestyle shift, unless you enjoy being constipated, which none of us do!
- If your poop is dark red or black, not black specks but entirely black stool, there’s a case for concern. While these colors may be diet-related (black stools can come from consuming certain medications, supplements or black licorice while red stools can come from eating beetroot, tomatoes, cranberries and food with red colorants), they can also be a sign of bleeding in your gastro-intestinal (GI): lower GI like the small and large intestines if your stool is dark red, and upper GI like the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum if your stool is black as it suggests blood that has been mixed with digestive juices and has been in your body for a while. Bleeding may be an indication of serious conditions like esophageal varices, peptic ulcer, diverticular disease, or even colon cancer, so it’s best to get testing done and verify that it’s not anything serious.
- If you sometimes see specks of blood after wiping (from a bowel movement), it may mean an anal fissure or piles/hemorrhoids. Anal fissures and piles aren’t a case of concern, but they certainly aren’t comfortable. Again, include foods with more fiber like fruits, vegetables, and whole grain foods; drink plenty of water; have regular exercise (to keep your body healthy); and use a soft brand toilet paper or if you use wipes, avoid those with fragrances or alcohol. Read more on WebMD: Anal Fissure | Hemorrhoids
- If your poop is sticky and takes many wipes to clean off, it may be due to a high-fat diet and/or lactose/gluten intolerance. Consider reducing the fat content of your diet and/or eliminating foods with lactose/gluten from your diet. Read: Foods to Avoid if Your Stool is Sticky.
- Dark pee is often a sign of lack of fluid intake, so drink more water.
Generally the problem for most of us is a lack of fiber and fluid intake. While there are fiber supplements out there in the market, I recommend natural solutions, i.e. eating the real thing, anytime any day. Increasing fruit and vegetable intake isn’t hard — it’s about making a commitment.
Some useful links about poop:
- The Scoop on Poop
- Black Stool – What causes Black Stool?
- What You See in the Toilet Can Give You Valuable Insights into Your Health
- Bristol Stool Chart Analysis
Remember, take care of your body — it is the only place you have to live in.
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“Passing pellet-like or hard poop?
With Types 1 and 2, you are lacking dietary fiber. Introduce more fruits and vegetables and water into your diet.”
What if it’s the other way round? Eat *less* fruit and drink *less* water? Doesn’t sound like a good idea :P
You mean if the person’s poo is Type 6 or 7? Actually I think those are indicative of other issues as opposed to having too much fruit and water — I don’t think having high fiber or water intake will cause poo to swing all the way to the other part of the scale. Rather, drinking too much water will cause one to pee more, while eating more fiber should theoretically make one poo more often. One should see the doctor if the poo falls under Types 6-7 for more than a few days!
More like a type 4 that takes tonnes of toilet paper to wipe off, which doesn’t seem to be listed in the chart. Maybe it just happens to anyone who starts eating more fruit&veg (so compared to before it seems annoying).
Or maybe it’s some other common food additive. I do try to avoid artificial sweeteners but there’s so many artificial things in food these days…
From what I’ve read, poop that’s hard to wipe off (i.e. sticky?) means it’s high in oil and fats (as opposed to fiber or water), probably due to a high oil and fat diet. This link may help: http://www.livestrong.com/article/326903-foods-to-avoid-if-your-stool-is-sticky/
Please, not only US reader are reading this.. Try to indicate measurement in the metric system and in the imperial system inside brackets.
Sincerely, the rest of the world.
PS: thank you for your work.
Not at all, I’m not from the U.S. and a good 60% of the readers at PE aren’t either (we have many readers from India, U.K., and Asia)! Sometimes I include both aspects of the data, sometimes only one — metric or non-metric, it’s random — and the content is definitely not meant to target Americans only. I’ll make a note to include both where possible in the future; thanks for your comment!
I’m from Scotland and have no issue with measurement system Celes is using. Although I do find it funny that you think you’re speaking for ‘the rest of the world’ – a very sweeping and generalising statement to make.
Hi Celes,
Thanks for your very informative post! It is great to use poop as an indicator to reflect our health status as we often don’t know how much fibre, vitamin c or protein we have consumed today/yesterday. I am not a calorie counter. As a vegan, I just make sure I eat lots of legumes, vegetables and whole grains everyday and eat fat/oil sparingly. I just took a urine and blood test myself for China visa and had dark pee, which probably means I need to drink more water. I am struggling to do that. I heard that there are some water bottles with markings to indicate water levels at 2pm,4pm, 6pm etc so we consume adequate water intake throughout the day. I might wanna try that ;) . For fibre, protein, calcium etc, I make a point to eat green leafy vegetables for every meal (excluding breakfast). Green leafy vegetables taste good and are really healthy for you! It can be a simple Chinese Kai Lan stir fry with garlic or steamed broccoli (about 1 cup per meal) and I think my bowels have never been smoother :) can’t wait for my blood test result to come out on Mon!
Very thanks for an article on this….
Hello Celes welcome back :)
thanks you for the great insightful post on human excretion. but i have one question here. what happen if my poo is mix of type 3 and type 6? what does that indicate?
thanks
Hey Victor! To be honest I’m no doctor, so I’m really not the right person to ask about this. I think that the seven categories are just seven samples of poo, and a type three and type six combined can well represent the same thing as someone with a type-six poo — someone with diarrhea signs. To quote this Bristol Chart Guide regarding Type 6 (which is linked in my post):
“These kind of stools may suggest a slightly hyperactive colon (fast motility), excess
dietary potassium, or sudden dehydration or spike in blood pressure related to stress (both cause the rapid release of water and potassium from blood plasma into the intestinal cavity). It can also indicate a hypersensitive personality prone to stress, too many spices, drinking water with a high mineral content, or the use of osmotic (mineral salts) laxatives. “
You’re right this kind of gross but informative. People need to know this stuff. I learned to up my water intake based on the color of my pee. Before I wouldn’t pay it any mind and just flush. But now I always look.
Same thing when I blow my nose. You can tell a lot by what’s going on in there just by looking at the tissue.
~Lea
Hey guys, my dad does smoke, drink alcohol and often sleep late just because of his career to do rough work everyday. He’s now 46 and he has blood on the surface of his stool and also urine too. I guess it’s a serious case. Any advice to curb this? I’m so worry about him.. Please reply as soon as possible. Thank you
Hi Carol, I’m no doctor and my best recommendation is to take him to the doctor ASAP!! Blood in stool/urine is hardly a small matter, and usually it’s a symptom of a longstanding (and serious) issue that’s now manifesting itself outwardly, as opposed to the beginning of a problem. Please, please do take him to the doctor, and keep us posted on how things go.
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