“Normal” saddles adopt a color palette ranging from beige to brown. This color is produced by bile, which is important for digestion, and by the blood. But sometimes the color changes dramatically. If they turn slightly red or green, it’s probably because you ate beets or spinach. But if the color changes drastically for several days, it may be a sign of a health problem. Talking about the color of your stools with the doctor should therefore not be taboo.
Ditto for their consistency. Since 1997, the appearance of human stool has been classified into 7 categories ranging from “hard, fragmented and difficult to pass” (type 1) to “completely watery stool” (type 7). “The ultimate poo being type 4 which has the best balance between water and solids, that is to say soft stools, molded in the shape of a sausage or a serpentine” as explained Giulia Enders in his book The discreet charm of the intestine, published by Actes Sud.
We leave it to you to discover in the book of this young doctoral student in German medicine everything that takes place in the intestine. And here’s what you need to know about stool color:
