Breaking

How Long It Takes You to Poop After Eating Can Tell You a *Ton* About Your Gut—and Overall—Health - Well+Good
Jun 11, 2021 2 mins, 56 secs
I’ve done a lot of weird stuff in the name of gut health, but purposely trying to turn my poop blue had to be the most out there.

As you may or may not know—depending on how much the topic of digestive health excites you—there’s a lot your poop can tell you about your health.

Recently, gut health company Zoe published a scientific study in the peer-reviewed journal Gut about what gut transit time—a term that refers to how long it takes to poop out what you ate—can specifically tell someone about not only their gut health, but their health in general.

In the study, the researchers tracked the gut transit time of participants by having them eat muffins dyed a vibrant Cookie Monster shade of blue.

This way, it would turn their poop blue and the participants would know their excrement was specifically from the muffins and not something else they ate?

“We found that by eating a bright blue muffin, developed by our scientists, and seeing when your poop turns blue, we can generate a basic snapshot of your gut health based on your gut transit time,” a publicist for the company emailed me.

In fact, Zoe was willing to send me blue muffins for the chance to learn about my gut transit time.

doc unaffiliated with the company to learn more about what gut transit time can tell someone about their health—and what an ideal gut transit time looks like.

“Gut transit time is very important because it’s not just the microbes themselves that are important, but also the ability to move the microbes.

When I spoke with nutritional sciences professor Sarah Berry, PhD, and genetic epidemiology professor Tim Spector, MD—who both worked on the Gut study and work with Zoe—they also explained to me why exactly gut transit time matters and how long it should take.

Spector explained that the importance of gut transit time hasn’t really been recognized until recently; the Bristol stool chart—a poster of different types of poo—has long been used to glean information about what poop can tell someone about their digestive health.

“The diversity of [good gut bacteria] was higher in people who had a short transit time and the diversity was lower in people who had a long transit time.

Spector says that based on what they found, a gut transit time of less than 24 hours should be ideal.

Spector points out that using dye to track gut transit time isn’t new; it’s done in hospital and clinical settings by gastroenterologists.

Both agree that eating blue muffins is a more accessible way for people to learn about their gut health.

“If you eat another blue muffin the next day, the transit time will be the same.”.

Anyone who makes the blue muffins can take a quiz where they input some quick stats about themself and their gut transit time.

Anyone who has ever had nervous poops before a big event can tell you that stress can have a direct effect on gut transit time.

The experts agreed that this is true and it’s a gut transit time factor they’re hoping to include in their newest research.

“The way stress affects transit time is so individual; there’s not a simple formula where we can say stress doubles or halves the transit time, it’s not that simple to figure out,” Dr!

RECENT NEWS

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly updates and free resources.

CONNECT WITH US

© Copyright 2024 365NEWSX - All RIGHTS RESERVED