Think you know how to poo? You’ve been doing it wrong all your life

A German author has rocked the nation with new theories on how to defecate – and we’ll all have to start learning again from the bottom

The humble toilet is a standard installation in our homes, but it might not be helping us have the healthiest bowels we can, according to an author who is an expert in bowel movements.

In fact, we should ditch the throne and squat down to defecate, according to Giulia Enders.

Currently studying for her doctorate in microbiology in Frankfurt, Giulia’s debut book, Darm mit Charme, which translates as Charming Bowels, has sold 200,000 copies in her native Germany, and people are gripped by her descriptions -and diagrams – of how we should be pooing.

Enders has appeared in many major talk shows talking about how best to defecate, noting, that various studies have been carried out, apparently, showing that we can simply poo more efficiently if we squat.

Sitting, rather than crouching while doing your business unnecessarily prolongs the process and may explain why haemorrhoids and bowel diseases like diverticulitis are more common in Europe than in Asia.

Apparently the closure mechanism of the gut is like a kinked house – it’s not designed to “open the hatch completely” when we’re sitting or standing.

Squatting, like they do in toilets in the Far East, is a more natural position and puts less pressure on our bottoms.

Enders said: “1.2 billion people around the world who squat have almost no incidence of diverticulosis and fewer problems with piles. We in the west, on the other hand, squeeze our gut tissue until it comes out of our bottoms.”

Putting our feet on a small stool while we’re on the loo could help, but the bottom line is – we’re going to have to relearn how to poo.

Five top tips for a happy gut

1) If you want your bottom to thank you, try pooing in the strain-sparing evacuation position called “the rocking squat” – literally crouching and then gently rocking on bent knees. No more haemorrhoids and digestive diseases like diverticulitis.

2) If you’re worried about your poo, check out the Bristol Stool Scale, which ranks poo on a seven-point scale, from “hard to pass lumps” to “entirely liquid,” since 1997.

3) Acknowledge y our gut and make it happy – tummy aches and troubles aren’t normal.

4) Food takes two or three hours to get in the blood, so think of how you feel two or three hours after you’ve eaten – cake and chips might leave you feeling more tired than vegetables.

5) Gut bacteria clean your gut every day, keeping you healthy so use nice food to treat them well.

– Mirror.co.uk May, 18, 2015

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