So, here is some fodder for your brain – poop facts! Alrighty there – it’s kinda icky but hey, I poop, you poop, everyone on this planet poops!
It’s an undeniable universal truth and if your bowel movement is causing trouble for you at work, it’s about time you quickly learn about your turd. It really has a lot to say – way more than you really imagine.
But hey, we don’t really want to sound like the geeky doctors who just educate, educate and educate. We are going to give you a mix of important and fun poop facts so that you can enjoy reading through. So, lets get started with 30 icky and interesting poop facts.
Interesting Poop Facts: 1-5
1. Indian squatting posture for pooping is by far the most scientific and effective method of pooping. Westerners – take that! You have a lot to learn about how to poop!
2. The stinky turd that comes out from your (as a matter of fact, everyone’s) bottom has 75% water and the remaining 25% is the solid part.
3. The 25% solid part is basically a combination of mucus, cells, live and dead microbes and fiber.
4. Poop color has a lot to tell about your physical health. The ideal poop color should be brown. This brown color comes from bile which is secreted from liver and aids in digestion. Dr. Bernard Aserkoff – a GI specialist from Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital says that the food we eat takes 3 days to end up as poop. During this time, the green bile does its job and creates the brown turd.
5. Poop is going to be greener in color if it ends up becoming poop before three days. The green color comes from the bile.
Interesting Poop Facts: 6-10
6. Black stool is altogether a different story and can literally mean serious health conditions. Black color may be a result of internal bleeding due to cancer or ulcer. Black stool is usually very stinky and also pretty sticky.
7. Just because the poop turned out to be black doesn’t necessarily mean a serious health condition. It can be an outcome of medications consisting of bismuth subsalicylate or vitamins and iron.
8. Grey clay colored poop can indicate trouble. It can indicate a liver disease or some kind blockage preventing proper bile flow.
9. Stinky poop is not necessarily a bad sign. If your family members aren’t able to use the toilet for an hour or two after you finish off your pooping ritual, it will simply mean that there’s plenty of bacteria in your gut that are sweating (working) hard to keep you healthy. The stink is actually a result of bacterial actions on the food during digestion process.
10. The modern method of sitting and pooping as opposed to the traditional squatting position can actually lead to pelvic and colon diseases such as diverticulitis (a situation in which poop gets trapped in colon), constipation, hemorrhoids etc. So, you better squat and poop.
Interesting Poop Facts: 11-15
11. The shape and size of poop was once considered an indication of health issues. However, Dr. Aserkoff says that recent research negates the old belief. According to him, as long as you poop as per your daily routine, the shape and size of turd isn’t really something you should be bothered about.
12. Some turd, you will notice, will sink in water and some will stay afloat. Floating poop means greater amount of gas and fat content in your poop. This type of poop will usually mean you have gas problems.
13. In the world of poop, there is something known as Mariko Aoki Phenomenon. It is a condition in which smell of books in bookstore can actually make you want to poop.
Well, one plausible explanation for this is that the scent works like a laxative. This hypothesis was suggested by Mariko Aoki – a Japanese woman in 1980s.
She wrote an article about it and that became extremely popular in Japan with hundreds and thousands of people reporting the same feeling. There’s actually no pure scientific explanation for this though!
14. Did you know that a South Asian generally poops more than an American or a Brit? According to Dr. Anish Sheth (popular by the name Dr. Stool in the scientific community) says that cultural difference has a lot to do with the amount of poop you excrete every day.
According to him, South Asians poop thrice as much as Brits and Americans because they eat more fibrous food.
15. While stinky poop may be a good sign, it can also mean trouble. According to Dr. Sheth, terribly stinky turd is an outcome of a microbe known as parasite giardia ingested while swimming in freshwater lakes. Such stinky poop can actually mean celiac disease, Crohn’s disease or even ulcerative colitis.
Interesting Poop Facts: 16-20
16. Here’s something unexpected. There is something called stool transplant. It is a process in which stool is taken from a healthy person and is placed in the colon of an unhealthy person. The good bacteria from the stool of healthy person then colonize the digestive tract of the unhealthy person and helps to effectively treat IBD or inflammatory bowel disease.
17. Japanese are weird people. They have given a whole new meaning to the term ‘eat shit’. Why? That’s because they (referring to Jap scientists) have actually processed shit, poop or turd (whatever you prefer saying) into food (that’s edible food).
18. Next time you drink civet coffee, do remember this – “Civets are fed with coffee cheries. During digestion, the enzymes of this weasel-like animal mixes with the beans of coffee. These beans are then excreted by civets. The beans are then separated and used as civet coffee.” Did you know civet coffee can cost USD 600 a pound? That’s pretty expensive for poop!
19. Red poop can be a result of eating beet, but it can also be caused by bleeding in rectum or lower digestive tract.
20. Did you know there are certain types of caterpillars that are known for flinging their poop to a distance of up to 3 feet? They do so for eluding predators.
Interesting Poop Facts: 21-25
21. Think of monster crap. Think think! How big can you imagine it to be? Well, the longest poop ever recorded was 26 feet produced by a woman named Ann Arbor in 1995.
22. Did you know that during WWII, the Germans believed that camel poop would bring good luck? So, they just drove their tanks over camel dung. The Brits somehow came to know about this and ended up producing explosives that looked like camel dung. Guess what? They used their unique explosive to neutralize many of the German tanks!
23. Never read books while pooping in a seated position. That’s because, the longer you sit, the more restricted the blood flow gets in the anal area. When that happens, hemorrhoids just get worse.
24. Every time you poop, make sure that you wash your hands thoroughly. Study suggests that in Britain, one out of every 6 cell phones carry fecal matter simply because people don’t wash their hands properly. These phones with fecal matter contained E. coli bacteria that gets transferred very easily.
25. You may come across the term ‘Poop Dance’. This term is associated with sloths. Sloths poop only once in a week. When they do, they just embrace a tree trunk and sway their bodies weirdly, which is where the name comes from.
Interesting Poop Facts: 26-30
26. Mozart, the musical genius had a hidden talent. He used to write letters to people which contained some really obscene jokes on poop.
27. The word Poop is derived from a Middle English word popen or poupen. Popen actually means fart!
28. Coprolite is the scientific name for fossilized poop. The longest coprolite that has been found till date is 40 inches long and was sold in an auction! Poop collector?
29. The oldest human poop that has been discovered till date is actually 50,000 years old!
30. Just like the caterpillars we talked about earlier, the penguins are also known for pooping with incredible force. They poop with 4 times the pressure used by humans while pooping. This means that penguins shoot their poop to quite a distance. Scientists believe that they do this to keep harmful bacteria off their fur.
Hope you liked our poop facts, if you want us to write more such articles, drop a comment below.