When we first started into our health journey last fall, we were helped along by Candice, a newer friend who, at the time, was in the process of finishing up her certification as a functional nutrition counselor. The conversation started out like you’d expect it would, with a focus on the symptoms that I was looking to have alleviated.1 Then we discussed probiotics and natural supplements that she thought would prove helpful to me. That was all expected and normal.
Then, we got to THIS part of the talk2
Candice: “You know what would be super helpful and fun?! I’m going to send you some PDFs that you can fill out over the next 10 days that will help us track your current health! You’ll record everything you eat, keep a diary of your poop, and then send me the journal when you’re done!”
Seth: “…So, you want me to describe my poop throughout the week and then send you my notes?”
Candice: “Yeah! Consistency, regularity, density. Won’t it be FUN to see if we can find some patterns in the data?!”
Seth: “…[silence]…”
Candice: “Ha-ha! If that seems a little weird to you, then you can just use this little chart that I’m sending you with pictures of 7 different types of poop! Then, instead of writing “fluffy pieces of mushy stool with ragged edges,” you can just write “#6,” or instead of writing “sausage-shaped but hard and lumpy” you could just write “#2!”
Seth: “What you’re saying is not making this feel less weird…”
Candice: “No! This will be great, I promise! We can learn so much from our poop!”
I ended that call with a combination of thoughts: I was predominately excited to be starting a nutrition-based healing regimen, but I was also notably disturbed to have discovered that our new friend was, in fact, a crazy person.
That experience took place around 5 months ago, and, guess what? Candice wasn’t quite as insane as I’d initially thought! I mean, she definitely is a bit more passionate about the subject of feces than seems entirely warranted, but I’ll give credit where it’s due: it turns out there’s a lot of wisdom to be gleaned from turds!
In fact, the more I’ve learned about gut health, the more our societal aversion to discussions of poop seems out of place. Everywhere you go, there are podcasts, blogs, websites, magazines, & books extolling the different virtues of what we put INTO our bodies, and people have no trouble digesting THAT information.3 Yet, when it comes to talking openly about how effectively our bodies are actually PROCESSING all those things we send through it each day, everybody gets awkward. Because poop is yucky.
Think about the silliness of that for a moment though. For most of us, who are at least somewhat health conscious, we are making intentional efforts to send all sorts of nutritious foods down our gullets, and then we are BLINDLY ASSUMING that those nutrients are actually being absorbed properly by our bodies. We are eating fruits and vegetables and meats and grains and then, as long as we don’t experience some sort of catastrophic fallout, we are hardly putting any real thought into how well those foods were metabolized.
More and more I’m realizing that there are throngs of people going about their days, THINKING they’re ok, yet in reality, their digestive tracts are a total wreck. There are many people who only poop once or twice per week, and when they do, it’s laborious.4 Other folks have regular bouts of borderline diarrhea.5 And many in both groups have accepted their sub-standard stool status as “just the way things are.”
When, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth! It turns out, both ends of that spectrum are indicative of poor gut-health. Look at the chart below.6 Numbers 1, 2, and 3 are all forms of constipation. Numbers 5, 6, and 7 are forms of diarrhea.
There is such a thing as an ideal #2, and it is actually number 4! Number 4 is what you are supposed to see EVERY TIME you use the crapper!
Not only is there a standardized “healthy poop,” there is also a standard rate of poop OUTPUT. A healthy gut (that is receiving three standard meals a day) will produce 1-2 “number 4s” PER DAY! At first, that might sound a little intense, but think about it: If you are putting food into your body at regular intervals, and that food is being processed in a healthy, consistent manner, then it makes sense that the waste of that food should be getting expelled at a commensurate rate as the food is being consumed!
Obviously, there are many factors that can cause one’s bowel movements to fluctuate along the above chart, but the important thing to keep in mind is that there IS an ideal expectation that you should be holding your bowels accountable to. If you’re not experiencing number 4s, and experiencing them often, then you should definitely be exploring ways of improving your gut health!
The reality is that less-than-ideal poops are the result of a less-than-ideal gut microbiome, which results in less-than-ideal overall health. SO MANY of our body systems START with our gut, so if our GUT isn’t functioning well, then neither are the systems that DEPEND on it!
Nutrients are absorbed through your gut (when it is functioning properly).
Vast amounts of hormones are produced and regulated in your gut (when it is functioning properly).
Your energy levels are highly impacted by your gut (when it is functioning properly).
Your gut is a HUGE contributor to your immune system (when it is functioning properly).
So, what is the take-away from all of this? If you have pooping issues, you have gut-health issues. And if you have gut-health issues, then you certainly have other related health issues. And you would feel a whole lot better if you addressed those issues.
I know what it’s like for a sub-par existence to become the standard. A good deal of my adult life was lived with undiagnosed gut-health problems and chronic side-effects from them. So, let me tell you from experience, getting used to being unhealthy is not a good life strategy. Dysfunction does not improve itself; it requires intervention.
And good interventions are out there.
Over the past 5 months, as I’ve grown in my appreciation of the world of defecation, I’ve also grown in my enthusiasm for some of the amazing tools that are available for those who want to naturally improve their health from the inside out. If any of this has resonated with you, it would be our joy to come alongside you in your health journey and share with you some of the products that have been working wonders for our family.
So, if you’re interested in experiencing “number 4” #2s, connect with us here, or on Facebook!
Squawkers
Why is my darling wife standing in the driveway, in her bathrobe, squawking expectantly at the trees in some odd hope of attracting a bird, you might ask?
A Growth Mindset
There is nothing better for a fruit tree than to grow under the care of an attentive gardener – someone who understands its true potential, knows what is best for it, and is willing to invest time and energy into its proper development.
Is It Worth It?
Being a bi-vocational pastor of a small country church is a good, fulfilling job…but it’s not a wallet-filling job. How do probiotic supplements fit into a tight budget like ours?
