If ya didn’t already know, nutritionists talk about digestion a lot. Like, a LOT. But there’s good reason – it’s at the root of your health.

Today I am sharing some insight into what info you can gain from your digestion. Keep in mind, every individual is different, and this is a general guideline.

The ideal poop is formed and does not require difficulty to pass. If you aren’t experiencing that, here are some explanations.

Pellet poops, or hard lumps that are hard to pass

First things first, are you drinking enough water? Aim for 8 cups/day and foods that are high in water like cucumber, celery, berries and tomatoes.

You may be lacking fiber in the diet. Try adding 1 TBSP ground flax, chia or psyllium to your breakfast, and increasing up to 2-3 TBSP/day. Making sure you’re not on too low carb of a diet is also important, as the carbohydrates have good fiber to help bulk up stool.

If fiber doesn’t help, there could be general dysbiosis in the gut, meaning there’s an imbalance of good and bad bacteria. I’d have to speak to you more about what would be a good probiotic to take, but step one would be to include more fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut and water kefir in your diet.

Diarrhea, or watery stools

This one is more obvious, and certainly something I dealt with when my Celiac & parasite where undiagnosed. This is harder to provide a diagnosis for without knowing more about the person, but here are some initial steps you can try:

• Slippery elm gruel (sounds gross, I know). Mix 1 TBSP slippery elm bark powder (found in health food store) in with 2.5-3 TBSP hot water so that it’s an oatmeal consistency. Eat it 2x a day – it can turn diarrhea around in a day.
• Then, you would want to work on removing the trigger foods. The most common ones are gluten and dairy, but if you don’t get results from that, a food sensitivity test and a full stool analysis may be worthwhile.
• From there, digestive enzymes, a probiotic and L Glutamine powder are all important to actually heal the digestive tract

Sticky poops, or the ‘double flush’ poop

We’re really getting personal on this one, eh?

If you have to do a double flush, or your stool is more sticky than just a formed tube, you may be consuming mucous forming foods, which in Ayurvedic medicine, refers to ‘damp’ foods. Cow’s dairy is a huge one for this, but for certain people gluten can also cause this and alcohol of course. An interesting symptom to look for is do you have any form of sinusitis or clogged nasal passages? This is also a sign of mucous in the body.

Try simply removing gluten & dairy for 2 weeks, and adding a probiotic.