What your poop can tell you about your health

The average person poops out approximately 11,030 kilograms of cumulative waste. That's the equivalent of more than six SUVs. Now, oftentimes, that poop is brown. But why is that, considering all the colorful comestibles one consumes? And what's going on when poop appears in different colors and textures? Say you’re eating a beautiful, rainbowy salad. Your teeth and saliva first help break down the food and add lubrication. Each bite enters your esophagus and sequential muscle contractions push it towards your stomach.

There, the mixture combines with the clear, hydrochloric acid and enzyme-packed digestive juices your stomach started secreting as you prepared to eat. These juices further degrade your food, and once your stomach stops churning, its partially digested contents, called chyme, slowly empty into your small intestine. Your pancreas releases another clear fluid loaded with even more enzymes, which get to work breaking carbohydrates down into monosaccharides, and proteins into amino acids and peptides.

At this point, your liver also sends in bile, which is tinted yellow. It contains salts that help separate the fats from your food so enzymes can also transform them into smaller units, like monoglycerides and fatty acids. Specific intestinal cells can then absorb these nutrients into the bloodstream. Bile is especially important on the color front. The reason it's yellow is because one of its major components is bilirubin, a yellowy compound produced by the breakdown of hemoglobin, the protein that helps your red blood cells transport oxygen.

By this point, the digestive system has broken down and absorbed lots of nutrients and added bile to the mix, so we’ve gone from a rainbow medley to a greenish-yellow liquid. But the transformation isn’t yet complete. This mixture then reaches the large intestine, where microbes break the bilirubin down into stercobilin. This compound is brown, and it's what lends poop its classic color. The large intestine then absorbs excess water, and the semi-solid brown mass is soon ready for excretion.

But of course, it doesn’t always go this way. Our bodies have a hard time processing certain pigments. Red beets, for example, are packed with betanins— large, pigmented molecules that our bodies only absorb about half the time, leading to red-tinged waste. Indeed, loading up on any one kind of colorful food can overwhelm the usual processes that degrade and absorb the pigment, resulting in poos of different hues. Meanwhile, certain medicines that treat upset stomachs may contain bismuth, which reacts with sulfur in the digestive tract to form bismuth sulfide,

turning poop pitch-black. None of these color shift scenarios are cause for concern, but some changes in poop characteristics can indicate when something’s not quite right. Ideally, poop is brown, semi-soft, sausage shaped, and easy to pass. Constipation can be a sign of dehydration, insufficient fiber, or another digestive disruption. And diarrhea might be greenish because it traversed the digestive tract too quickly for bacteria to transform bilirubin into stercobilin. This might happen because of disturbances including food intolerances,

infections, and inflammatory diseases. Yellow, smelly, floating poops could mean the pancreas isn’t producing all the digestive enzymes needed to break down fats in the small intestine. Pale poop may come to pass when bile isn't entering the small intestine, suggesting a liver, gallbladder, or pancreas problem. And red or black poop can indicate internal bleeding from any number of intestinal abnormalities. Considering how small changes in diet and lifestyle can cause big shifts in bowel movements,

a couple days of colorful poops, constipation, or diarrhea are generally benign. But it’s worth monitoring the situation in case things don’t return to normal within a week. In those scenarios, it's a good idea to get a doctor on the case. Blood, discomfort, and persistent constipation, diarrhea, narrow poops, or lack of relief from bowel movements can indicate more serious digestive issues. This includes blockages, inflammation, bowel diseases, and cancers. Your bowels will only benefit from early intervention.

So, don’t be afraid to take to the toilet, face your feces, and examine your excrement. There’s nothing to be ashamed of— but lots to learn about the colorful choreography going on inside.Follow for more stories like this.