Our intestinal wastes are the most potent sources of feedback our body gives us.
As gross as it may sound to you, but poop is your tell all-sign of health.
Ayurveda recognizes that the digestive tract is the very first place where the imbalances arise in the body.
Even in modern medical science stool test is of prime importance.
However, a majority of people have no idea how to identify these warning signals that our body tries to give us.
But not anymore, In this blog, we will discuss what these warning signals are and how to fix them then and there.
So, without any further delay let’s get started.
According to Ayurveda, over 95% of the diseases arise from the indigestion of food.
This being the case our stool tends to offer very early warning signs that something is going wrong within.
If not acted upon, even a minor problem can spread to other parts of the body.
On the other hand, if you become smart enough to understand what your body’s trying to tell, you don’t even need to visit a doctor.
And there isn’t a better indicator to judge that than your own poop.
But given the taboo nature of this topic, the easily observable indications of any imbalance in the body are often overlooked.
So, let’s break the taboo and find out what our poop has to tell us. Let’s see how a healthy poop and an healthy poop should look alike.
Types of Poops & What they Indicates?
1. Dry, Hard, Scanty, Lumpy: Dryness & Coldness
Is your poop dry and hard, broken up into pieces? Or is it often scanty, hard, dry and lumpy/cracked up in nature?
This is an indication of excess dryness and coldness in your system.
2. Explosive & Watery: Extreme Heat
Then are you prone to explosive pooping? Often lose poop falling apart and water?
It is an indication of excess heat in the body.
3. Large, Sticky, Difficult to pass, w/Mucus: Presence of Oil
Then, if your poop is large sticky often difficult to pass and perhaps laced with mucus.
This means that you have probably been eating heavy oily foods that are clogging up your digestive system and causing overall sluggishness.
4. Normal Colour
Normal stool colour is brown, this is due to the presence of bile juice in it.
However, poop can range from light yellow to brown to almost black.
5. Variation in colour due to What you have eaten last night
Many a time the colour of poop is following what you might have eaten the previous day.
6. Some Odd Colours
Although if some odd colours persist for more than three days it could signify a problem.
For example – Extremely light yellow or sometimes orange colour shows that the food is moving too fast in the digestive tract indicating issues with the liver.
Blackish colour may indicate excessive heat in the body, sometimes even internal bleeding.
Redness could indicate blood in your stool which might be a sign of piles.
What is your daily experience with poop like? As in is it difficult to pass or rather gets passed too quickly.
Ideally, poop should be easy and natural to pass and not more than once a day.
However, if it is difficult to pass causing straining or is even painful, this is a clear sign of dryness and formation of gas in the body.
If this is the case with you I suppose your bowels are quite irregular inclined towards constipation.
Contrary to this if your stool passes quickly, almost urgent this shows excessive heat in the body.
Such a person is a frequent visitor to the washroom inclined words diarrhoea.
7. Sticky and Difficult to Clean: Excessively Oily Body
Apart from these two cases if it often feels sluggish, slow or incomplete, sticky and difficult to clean.
This signals excessively oily body.
8. Food Not Digested
Among these indications, there is another signal when you see a complete piece of food, often something like corn or peas in your food.
It is not alarming though it shows that you do not chew your food properly.
This proves what Ayurveda always preaches that it’s not what you eat but what you digest that really counts.
So, now with these indicators, I’m sure you would be able to identify yourself of these three groups.
This is the basis of body types in Ayurvedic Scriptures.
Vata, Pitta and Kapha body types.
The imbalances of these three are the root cause of any health problem that you may think of.
| Dry & Cold Body | Heated Body | Oily Body | |
| Quantity | Scanty | Moderate | Large |
| Qualities | Dry, Hard | Watery | Oily, sticky, slow |
| Form | In pieces, Lumpy, Cracked up | Loose, Falling apart in water | Well-formed but often laced with mucous |
| Regularity | Irregular, Inclined towards Constipation | Frequent, inclined towards diarrhoea | Regular but might not feel complete |
| Experience | Difficult to pass even painful | Passes quickly, almost urgent | Slow and difficult to clean |
| Effect | Dryness & formation of gas | Excessive heat formation | Excessive Oil clogged up in the system |
How to Create a Balance?
Now, let us find out what exactly we can do to balance them.
If Extremely Dry & Cold
If you found your system to be extremely dry and cold, you must give a break to drying foods like dry fruits tea, coffee, raw vegetable salads, kidney beans etc.
Instead, cold-pressed oils desi cow ghee, fresh milk and milk products will give the much-needed lubrication to your body.
Then extremely sour foods like tamarind, refrigerated food should be avoided here.
Daily body massage is one of the fastest ways to overcome internal body dryness.
If Excessive Heat
Then if you find excessive heat in your body avoid very salty, spicy and sour foods.
You should give break to chillies and excessive masalas for a while.
On the other hand, sweet and bitter foods cool down the body.
So, you have a reason to eat homemade sweets prepared from healthy sweet nuts.
Foods high in water content are top-notch to balance the increased heat in the body.
If Oily Body
Or if you were able to identify yourself with the third type, where there is excess oil clogged up in your system half of your problem will be solved if you just stay away from deep-fried refined foods.
Though you can afford to eat homemade spicy food.
Apart from this, you should even skip milk and milk products until the problem subsides.
You must include fresh fruits and raw vegetables in your daily diet.
Ginger tea, Besan based foods are great to normalize the condition.
You know what’s best is that by following the above for just a day or two you can notice the symptoms changing and your poop telling a different story altogether with ideal characteristics.
What is the Ideal poop like?
Well, which is slightly oily, soft and brown in colour.
Which is similar to a ripe banana in its shape and consistency, which does not stick to the toilet, which floats or hovers in the upper portion of the toilet water, has a mild non-offensive odour, which passes easily and more importantly when you are relieved with just one complete elimination in the morning, and you feel lighter after the bowel movement.
| Slightly Oily, Soft & Brown in Colour |
| Similar to Ripe Banana in Shape & Consistency |
| Does not Stick to the Toilet |
| Floats or Hovers in the Upper portion of Water |
| Has a mild Non-Offensive Odour |
| Natural & Easy to pass |
| Relieved with just one elimination in the morning |
| You feel lighter & relaxed after pooping |
That’s when you know that your system isn’t pushing you towards any disease.
It is amazing that we can learn so much about ourselves just by paying attention to our stools.
By identifying the signals and then just tweaking your daily routine accordingly, you will not just be able to resolve an underlying health issue, but will also create a perfect balance within your body.
I hope you find this to be helpful, if yes then please share this article.