Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Day 20 P90X , Poop Report

Yesterday was a good day. I did all my scheduled workouts and belly dancing class. Food was on and water was over! I think I'm finally getting back on track mentally too.... and we all know that is the key to success.

Today I have to find a way to build 3 chicken coops (with runs) for 25 hens... I have at least another week before the chicks are big enough to leave their cozy little corner in our house... but I need to get going on them. I'm also going to try and use some of the wood that is lying in piles around our property. We'll see how creative I can be!

Today's Plan:

Kenpo X
walk, walk, walk

Focus: calories and water


The other day I did a post about Poo and was asked so many questions about it that I decided I had to answer them.. so here is part 2 of Poo.

The best place to find information on Poop was the interview between Oprah and Dr. Oz. Here is how he answered these questions:

1. How long does it take to digest food?

Have you ever wondered what happens to the food you eat? First, it passes through the esophagus. It moves by a wave of muscle contractions that squeeze the food down at about two inches per second. When the food reaches the stomach, it falls into a churning pool of digestive juices. In the stomach, the food is broken down into easily absorbable ingredients: proteins, sugars and fats.

Then greenish brown bile produced in the liver is added to help the breakdown of these fats. By the time the food leaves your stomach and passes into the small intestine, it's unrecognizable. The walls of our intestines absorb the nutrients into our blood and that's how we get the energy we all need to live.

How long does this vital process take? It depends on what you're eating, Dr. Oz says. "A steak dinner can take you two, maybe three days to get out of your intestine. What that means is the way you digest it is basically to rot it in your intestines. On the other hand, if you eat vegetables and fruits, they're out of your system in less than 12 hours."

What about chewing gum? Is it true that it takes seven years for it to digest? "No," Dr. Oz says. However, this little urban legend can be a good way to "get kids to stop chewing gum."

2. Why does poop smell?

You might want to light a match because Dr. Oz has something to tell you: The origin of poop's odor is sulfur, which smells like a rotten egg.

Many foods contain sulfur. "Eggs are one of them. Cheese—there's a reason they say, 'Don't cut the cheese,'" Dr. Oz says. Other sulfurous foods include meats and vegetables.

3. Why do I get diarrhea?

Here's the small and large story about the intestines: Serotonin is the natural chemical in the body that antidepressants affect. Though 5 percent of your body's serotonin is in your brain, 95 percent is in your intestines. "You have a second brain down there," Dr. Oz says. "There are 100 million nerves in that intestine tract. That's the same amount of nerves as you have in your spine."

If your intestines become confused, Dr. Oz says, one effect could be diarrhea, bloating and discomfort from inflammatory bowel disease, or IBS, a very common problem. If you have this problem for more than a day or so, "take chicken soup with some rice because it will help you reabsorb sugar and salt." If you get diarrhea chronically, Dr. Oz says the cause may be food allergies. Some common food allergies include milk products and wheat.

According to Dr. Oz, diarrhea is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, it's just your body's way of protecting itself. "The immune system in your intestines is a very intricate one and it knows when food is not right for you," he says. "So it will tell your body, 'You know what? Get rid of that. We don't want this in us!'"

4. What causes burping and farting?

On a previous show, Dr. Oz explained that the average person—both men and women—passes gas 14 times a day. What's causing this phenomenal natural gas leak?

"Many of those bacteria that are on your side and protecting you normally will eat up the foods that you're eating and release their waste product: gas, which, by the way, is good for you. You want to have a regular amount of gas. The problem happens when you eat certain foods that give you more gas than you want."

Probably the most infamous gas-producing foods are beans, which, Dr. Oz explains, contain sugar. "In fact, sugars in general are the problem." Bacteria love simple sugars and simple carbohydrates because they're so easy to digest.

Dr. Oz says it's not just what you eat. It's also in the air you breathe. "Twenty percent of the gas comes from the air you take in your mouth," he says. "That comes because you're eating too quickly, you're drinking carbonated beverages, you're chewing gum, you're smoking cigarettes, you're sucking air into your body that gets into your intestines."

Think of your body as a refrigerator, Dr. Oz says. If you let food sit in there, it's going to smell after a while. In your body, sulfur-rich foods like eggs, meat, beer, beans and cauliflower are decomposed by bacteria to release hydrogen sulfide—a smell strong enough to flatten a bear. Avoiding these foods is the ideal solution, but when stinky gas persists, the best solutions are leafy green vegetables and probiotics, specifically lactobacilli GG. These can be found in some yogurts. The product Beano can sometimes work with beans, but soaking the beans ahead of time is useful as well.

Poop Color, Poop Shape, Poop Odor/smell-

Dr. Oz says that these indicate and ultimately give a clue to how well your body is functioning. You need 25 grams of fiber per day drink plenty of water to avoid problems like constipation.Taking Olive oil or flax seed oil (like lotions for the intestines) helps let the poop glide out.Drinking enough water helps flush out your system. Your urine should be "clear enough to read through".

Poops should have a curve to them, like an S shape or C shape. They should not be hard, pancake like, or pellets (constipation, need more fiber and water). They should not "plop" into the water but "dive like an Acapulco diver". Floating poops means they have too much fat in them, meaning you are eating lots of fatty foods.



WALK-ON!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are fearless TL!! Who else could pull off a whole post about poo?!

Thanks for the info - I feel enlightened now! =)

Laura N said...

Who knew there was so much info about poo? I was finishing my lunch while reading this, though, and that was pretty gross. =)

Hope your week is going well.

Fatinah said...

too much information!!!

hahahaha