© The Spruce / Michelle Becker
But your bodily emissions are an important health topic that deserves serious attention, regardless of the ick factor. In fact, if you ignore what you deposit in your toilet, you could be flushing your health down the drain. Did you know the average person generates about 12 tons of stool in his or her lifetime?1 It turns out, there is much to be learned from this mountain of poop.
The shape, size, color and other fecal features can tell you a great deal about your overall health and how your gastrointestinal tract is functioning. It can even give you clues about serious disease processes that could be occurring, like infections, digestive problems and even cancer. Poop comes in just about all the colors of the rainbow — and please forgive me for using the words poop and rainbow in the same sentence.
Comment: See also: Your poo may be trying to tell you something