TED Talks · Listen with Dr Jen Gunter

About Pooping

Often do you poop? You might have heard you should have a bowel movement once a day,

Level: C1 · 79 sentences

Transcript

Often do you poop?
You might have heard you should have a bowel movement once a day,
but the truth is that if you poop anywhere
from three times a day to three times a week,
you are completely and totally normal.
Hey there, it's Dr. Jen Gunter.
As an OBGYN and pain medicine doctor,
I end up talking to my patients about poop more than you might think.
Overall, I hear a lot of anxiety about it.
Some people worry about not having a bowel movement once a day,
even though it's a phony metric.
Other people struggle with constipation.
Often they don't get the treatment that they need,
and they can even turn to dangerous solutions, such as colon cleanses.
But for all the poop talk,
there's one word I don't hear enough. Fiber.
Let me take you through the journey from food to poop.
Digestion actually starts in the mouth.
Chewing breaks the food down into smaller particles.
As you eat, your food mixes with saliva which moistens the food
and has enzymes that starts to break down the starches and fats.
Contractions in your esophagus push the food to your stomach where acid
and gastric juices and enzymes further break the food down.
The food then travels to the small intestine where fats, proteins, carbohydrates,
and micronutrients are further broken down with help from the pancreas,
gallbladder, liver, and the microbiome.
So they can be absorbed across the small intestine
and sent to the liver for processing.
What's left moves to the large intestine,
or the colon, which has three main jobs.
Absorbing water and electrolytes, producing and absorbing vitamins,
and forming and squeezing the material,
now called stool, towards the rectum.
When the rectum is full, it sends a signal to the brain,
and the brain takes into account whether it's a socially acceptable time to poop,
and if it is, it sends a signal
to the anal sphincter muscles to relax, and boom.
You know what happens next.
This process involves more than 10 organs
and typically takes anywhere from 24 to 120 hours in healthy people.
So it's helpful to think of poop as exactly what it is.
All the stuff that doesn't get digested in this process.
It is water, bacteria, dead cells, and mucus.
All glommed together with fiber.
Fiber is amazing.
It affects the digestive tract from top to bottom.
It is, very simply, a carbohydrate the body can't absorb.
While other carbs are broken down into sugars,
fiber passes by, sort of moseying along,
doing all kinds of cool things.
High-fiber foods physically take longer to eat,
so they help us pace meals. The bulk also slows down digestion
especially in the stomach and makes you feel full longer
Fiber also draws water into the stool keeping it soft
Scratchy, hard stool is, to put it mildly, unpleasant
It also increases bacterial mass. The water and bacteria together
increase the bulk of the stool which helps it move along.
Fiber also slows absorption of sugars into the bloodstream
and reduces absorption of fats and cholesterols.
And as fiber collects in your colon,
it feeds all your good gut bacteria,
helping you maintain a healthy microbiome.
Fiber is associated with a reduced risk of diabetes,
heart disease, several gastrointestinal conditions, and even certain cancers.
And yet, most of us aren't getting enough of it.
For example, in the US, the vast majority of adults
aren't eating the recommended 28 grams of fiber per day.
In fact, the average American just gets
15 grams of fiber a day.
So how exactly do you get more fiber?
The generic answer is to eat more whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes.
But I want you to consider some more specific fiber-rich foods that I personally love.
Pears, raspberries, and blackberries.
Avocados and artichokes.
High fiber cereals. Whole grains.
As farro, lentils, kidney beans, and chickpeas.
Almonds, pistachios, and sunflower seeds are other options.
When in doubt, reach for those.
And happy pooping.