How should your bowel movement look?

They say our eyes are a window to our soul, but our bowel movement offers a pretty good glimpse into what’s happening inside too. Changes in consistency or colour shouldn’t be ignored. Sometimes the reason is fairly simple, sometimes it can be more serious.

“In gastroenterology we divide people into people who look and people who don’t. I would urge everyone in Australia to look,” says Dr Ellard. Now, some of what you see in the toilet bowel you shouldn’t worry about. Corn almost always goes straight through. “It’s because we don’t have cellulose to break down enzymes and that’s the main reason why we don’t graze and eat grass or eat timber” says Dr Borody.

A tinge of beetroot red shouldn’t alarm you either: “It will go through with the pigment unchanged” he says. But there’s one red tinge you should never ignore. Blood red can mean big trouble.

“Bowel cancer is very common. One in 18 men and one in 26 Australian women develop bowel cancer. And one of the cardinal signs of people developing bowel cancer is blood in the motion. If you see it, you must get it checked out. It’s never normal” says Dr Ellard.