You don’t have to go the emergency room for it, but you might want to consider why it’s happening.
Poo can be an endless source of fascination. Toddlers love to peer into the toilet bowl and watch it wash away, older kids make endless jokes about it, adults worry when something seems different and there’s even a café devoted to it- if only in name.
But what about the density and weight of your poo? What does it mean if the brown stuff sinks like a submarine? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
And what about if it sort of, well, floats? Does it mean your good eating habits are lost at sea?
Here’s what the experts say. First of all, the consistency of your poo is always a reflection of what you’re eating. That seems obvious. The Health Guide in the New York Times says that a weightless stool could be simply a piece of poo that has a lot of gas in it.
Maybe you just changed your diet and it gave you a lot of flatulence. Instead of having you fart it all out, some of it got locked up in your poo.
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According to Womenshealthmag.com, foods like bran and things that contain artificial sweeteners are tricky for our bodies to digest and can cause excess gas.
So, simply taking the offending food out of your diet could fix things and send your poop sailing down the pipes on its own.
A second problem you could be having is that your body isn’t absorbing the nutrients from your food enough, which is resulting in poo with a high fat content. Fatty things like to float, and this is no different.
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While it might seem great to be getting rid of so much from your bowels, it’s not actually a good thing. Your body needs those nutrients and for some reason, it won’t take them, or at least one offender, in. It’s time to see a doctor if you suspect this may be happening.
They can help you get to the root of the problem and back into good health.
And last but not least, super-light poo might actually be caused by a gluten or dairy intolerance o sensitivity. If you think this may be the case, or you know for a fact, eliminate one type of food from your diet at a time and see if it solves the problem.
Nothing like a bunch of ice cream served up in a massive waffle cone to make your stool float like a Styrofoam buoy if you’re really need to be going gluten and/or dairy free. It tastes great, but it’s your body’s way of telling you that you could really do without the hassle.
If you’re truly concerned about your floating poop, see your doctor. It could be relatively harmless, or something that needs more attention than a couple of flushes.
Photo credits: Zhitkov/Bigstock; aradaphotography/Bigstock; Javier Brosch/Bigstock/Tim Mainiero/Bigstock
