What healthy poop looks like?

Understanding your poop

As well as different toilet routines and habits, we all have different looking poop, with different textures, sizes, shapes, and smells. So what constitutes a healthy poop?

Whilst we all have our own ‘normal’ in relation to our poop, healthy stools are soft and formed, not hard and lumpy, and are passed easily, with no urgency or pushing.

The recognised method of identifying if our poop is healthy is via a simple scale known as the Bristol Stool Chart.

This chart is used clinically by doctors and health professionals to help measure the time it takes for food to pass through our body (transit time from eating to pooping) and may help to identify digestive issues.

The Bristol Stool Chart classifies stools (poop) into seven types numbered from one to seven, with type 1 indicating severe constipation and type 7 severe diarrhoea.

A healthy or normal poop falls into types 3 or 4 – a sausage shape that is either smooth or has some cracks on the surface is soft and easy to pass and takes between 12 and 24 hours to pass through the body.

The Bristol Stool Chart and its indications are included below:

Other interesting articles covering what healthy poop should look like, include:

• 11 Icky but Interesting Facts About Poop – Everyday Health

• 5 Things Your Poop Can Tell You About Your Health – Hopkins Medicine

Want to know more?

Pro-Ven Probiotics aim to provide the best support for both you and your health. If you wish to know more about gut health, and how it affects toilet activities please do not hesitate to call us on 01639 825107 or alternatively, learn more via our blogs or in-depth proven research.

ProVen Probiotics, Unit 2 Christchurch Road, Baglan Industrial Park, Port Talbot, SA12 7DJ. Tel: 01639 825107