--- title: Poop: What Does My Poo Say About My Health? description: You are what you poop—poo reveals if you have a healthy diet and how well your body’s digestive system is handling the foods you eat canonical: https://time.com/3625206/poop-health/ author: Markham Heid article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-10T13:00:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:49:45.838Z article:section: Health og:title: You Asked: What Is My Poo Telling Me? og:description: You are what you poop—poo reveals if you have a healthy diet and how well your body’s digestive system is handling the foods you eat og:url: https://time.com/3625206/poop-health/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2be2dea3be64b61/69876dc3428a9eb839cc5ecb/you-asked-poop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: you-asked-poop og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: You Asked: What Is My Poo Telling Me? twitter:description: You are what you poop—poo reveals if you have a healthy diet and how well your body’s digestive system is handling the foods you eat twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2be2dea3be64b61/69876dc3428a9eb839cc5ecb/you-asked-poop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # You Asked: What Is My Poo Telling Me? > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Markham Heid](https://time.com/author/markham-heid/) ## Markham Heid Markham Heid is a contributor at TIME. He is the author of The Habit Trap, due out in early 2027. Dec 10, 2014 1:00 PM UTC  Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME by [Markham Heid](https://time.com/author/markham-heid/) ## Markham Heid Markham Heid is a contributor at TIME. He is the author of The Habit Trap, due out in early 2027. Dec 10, 2014 1:00 PM UTC Some say you are what you eat. But really, you are what you poop. “Not only does stool tell you about the health of your diet, but it shows you how your body’s digestive system is handling the foods you eat,” says Dr. Anish Sheth, a Princeton-based gastroenterologist and author of _What’s Your Poo Telling You_? From hemorrhoids to cancer, diseases grave and small often show up first in your feces, Sheth says. And in recent years, health experts have learned your excrement also contains a wealth of information about your microbiome, the world of microscopic organisms that live and support your body’s many internal systems. Put simply, your poop is a window to your health—even if you don’t consider the view all that appealing. ### You Asked: Your Top 10 Health Questions Answered  You Asked: Are Cleanses Healthy? Potions that claim to clear your body of toxins might sound alluring, but do they deliver? Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Eating Dessert Really That Bad For Me? Bad news for sweet-eaters—except if you end your meals with this kind of treat. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: What’s the Best Way to Whiten My Teeth? Yes, teeth whitening actually works—but here's why you have to dish out major bucks to see results. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Meditation Really Worth It? From easing stress to lowering heart disease risk, focusing your mind can do some amazing things for your body. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: What’s the Healthiest Sweetener? Take a taste of the unsettled science of sweeteners. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Should I Go Paleo? The pros and cons of eating like a caveman. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Cracking Your Knuckles Bad? Here's what really happens to your joints when you snap, crackle and pop. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Is Running on a Treadmill as Good as Running Outside? You'll fool your body into thinking it's outside with this one small treadmill tweak. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: Does Laughing Have Real Health Benefits? Here's proof that everybody could use a belly laugh. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME  You Asked: What Is My Poo Telling Me? If you listen hard enough, you'll hear all kinds of health stories from #2. Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME The first thing to consider when assessing your stool (a practice Dr. Sheth heartily advocates) is consistency, both in terms of physical attributes and regularity. “The ideal stool,” Dr. Sheth says, “has been described as a single soft piece.” You’re looking for something log-ish but not too firm, he continues. Imagine dispensing soft serve ice cream into your toilet, and you’ll have the general, somewhat less delicious idea. This type of stool indicates you’re getting plenty of water and fiber in your diet. An absence of either can produce firmer, broken-up, difficult-to-expel feces or constipation, Sheth says. How hard you have to push is also important, he adds. Ideally, you should “evacuate” your waste with almost zero effort and feel as though you’ve fully emptied yourself. Of course, everyone has the occasional bout of diarrhea or too-firm poo. But Sheth says neither should worry you much if it happens just once or twice before you’re back to normal. If a week passes without you passing healthy-looking stool, you should speak with a doctor. Even if you’re taking a number-two every day, hard or broken-apart poop is a sign that your diet is probably too low in fiber or water, which can lead to all sorts of gastrointestinal (GI) tract issues, Sheth says. The color of your feces is also important. If it appears black or tarry, that may be evidence of blood. “The darker the stool, the higher up in your GI tract the blood is likely coming from,” Sheth says. He explains that blood emanating from ulcers or stomach problems will darken as it passes through your digestive system. If you see maroon or dark red hues or streaks in your poop, that could mean inflammation, colitis, or certain intestinal cancers, Sheth explains. Bright red blood often indicates hemorrhoids or problems localized very near your anus. Even the buoyancy of your bowel movements can reveal concerns. If your poop usually floats, that may signal an issue with your body’s ability to absorb fat, which in turn might mean your pancreas is having problems, Sheth says. Some particularly bad odors could also be red flags for health issues, although you probably wouldn’t know them if you smelled them. “Some doctors can identify certain GI diseases just by the distinct smell, although people who don’t diagnose them all the time wouldn’t be able to,” Sheth explains. To keep your poop and your health in top form, Sheth recommends a diet than includes, again, plenty of fiber. “The average American gets about nine grams of fiber a day, when you need 25,” he says. He recommends lots of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes and seeds like flax or chia. “Throw those in a daily smoothie,” he suggests. “And look before you flush!” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3625206/poop-health/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3625206/poop-health/"},"headline":"You Asked: What Is My Poo Telling Me?","datePublished":"2014-12-10T13:00:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:49:45.838Z","description":"Your excrement is illuminating","url":"https://time.com/3625206/poop-health/","keywords":["Research","Cancer","gut bacteria"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2be2dea3be64b61/69876dc3428a9eb839cc5ecb/you-asked-poop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Markham Heid","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/markham-heid/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta2be2dea3be64b61/69876dc3428a9eb839cc5ecb/you-asked-poop.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"you-asked-poop","caption":"you-asked-poop","creditText":"Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3625206/poop-health/","name":"You Asked: What Is My Poo Telling Me?"}}]}] ```