By Louise Belle BHSc (Nut Med)

Are you one to have a good look at your poo before you flush it? I certainly am. Your poo can tell you many different things about the state of your health. If you simply wipe and flush without having a sneak peek you could be missing out on vital clues. Ideally, your poo should be brown, smooth, sausage-like in appearance and fairly easy to pass. These are some things that your poo could be telling you:

1. Undigested food

If you have seeds or pieces of vegetables appearing in your poo it could indicate a lack of hydrochloric acid in your stomach or available digestive enzymes to adequately break down your food. If the food matter is passing through into your stool then it’s unlikely that you are absorbing many nutrients from it. Apple cider vinegar, lemon water, pineapple, papaya, kiwifruit or a digestive enzyme supplement with meals can aid in digestion.

2. Small, hard pebbles

If you pass little pebble-like poops (like rabbit poo or marbles) then this indicates that you’re constipated. If your stool is formed but has hard lumps all over it, this still indicates a degree of constipation and is not ideal. The longer the stool sits in your intestines, the more toxins are being reabsorbed into your body. Increasing water intake and fibre in your diet in the form of vegetables, fruit or a fibre supplement can greatly help to alleviate constipation. Read more constipation remedies here.

3. Strong odour

We all know that our poo shouldn’t smell like roses, but if it has a particularly strong and offensive smell, it could be a sign of an underlying problem. It could indicate poor digestion, overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria or lack of bile. Bactoclear capsules contain natural anti-microbial essential oils that can help to get rid of pathogenic bacteria in the gut.

4. Different colours

If your stool is pale in colour it can indicate fat malabsorption due to poor bile flow, if it’s red it could be a sign of bleeding in the lower digestive tract (or that you’ve eaten a lot of beetroot or berries), an almost black stool could indicate upper intestinal tract bleeding and green could be due to eating greens in your diet or malabsorption. If you don’t look at your poo, you might not even realise that you have a health issue.

5. Soft or watery

In the short-term, loose stools could indicate a stomach bug or that you’ve eaten something spicy or that didn’t agree with you. If you are experiencing it often then you need to figure out the cause. Some common reasons could be food intolerances, parasites, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel conditions, thyroid conditions, malabsorption or even something more sinister.

If you notice any of the symptoms above on a regular basis then it is important to seek the advice of a healthcare practitioner.

Ultimate Gut Health powder contains healing amino acids, fibers and a probiotic that help to soothe and repair the gut lining and improve overall gut health. See Dr Cabot’s book Healthy Bowel, Healthy Body for more information on how to improve your gut health.