Mark Hendriksen

‘Mouth via Gut to Butt.’

As the last week’s news once again seems to be focussed on (alleged) ‘toilet paper shortages‘, and sensibly not putting anything but ‘the 3Ps‘ in the toilet [pee, poop and toilet paper] both of which we’ve covered a lot recently in ‘The Daily Poo!’ Today, we felt it an opportune moment to discuss another important subject that ties in directly with our specialist subject ‘loos & no. 2s’… and that’s your gut and microbiomes.

‘Gut’ The essential book to read about our insides and backsides.

The reason Mark [editor at ‘The Daily Poo!’] got into the world of poop and toilet talk in the first instance, was after doing a sourdough baking course with Vanessa Kimbell (an expert on microbiomes and the gut) so he could bake traditional sourdough bread for guests of his B&B in Corfu, where the art had all but disappeared. That led onto him reading a book about gut bacteria, ‘The Gut’ by Giulia Enders while (on a National Express coach) heading to Cardiff for an appointment with colleagues on another altogether different project, The ABC of Opera’s – Academy of Barmy Composers.‘ On that journey he was inspired by the writing of Giulia Enders. Mark then researched, designed, and filed for a number of patents pending to improve peoples health and wellbeing when ‘sitting’ on the the wc. That then led to writing three (so far, with a fourth work in progress) children’s books about poop and toilets, and of course the now weekly edition of ‘The Daily Poo!‘

‘Gut’ was first published back in 2014 [Giulia Enders‘ TED Talk from 2017 can be seen here.] Mark happened upon it 4 years later and was glued. Giulia was breaking taboos with a no nonsense approach to bodily functions, an on-point poop perspective, and questioning our posture ‘sit vs squat’ when in the pooping position by presenting us with ‘the inside story of our body’s most under-rated organ.‘ Our guts, and microbiomes (i.e. the entire collection of microbes living in and on our bodies) are one of today’s hottest topics. Achieving a near perfect poop consistency is strongly associated with the richness and make up of your gut microbiota, in other words, the bacteriological ecosystem in our gut microbiome. Simply put, the human body is colonised by trillions of microbes that contribute to our health and well-being. We personally only have a basic understanding of this, but there’s a whole stack of information on the topic which you can access easily. For an in-depth article that’s easy to relate to and with our connections to (proper) sourdough, read Vanessa Kimbells’ excellent piece from The Sourdough School, ‘Gut microbes and the role of sourdough in supporting a healthy digestive system.‘

It takes Guts…

One thing is for sure, we’ve probably all had to provide a sample of our poop at some time (or will) to check for certain health issues, so it shouldn’t seem unusual that companies like Viome (who offer comprehensive health insights about your gut microbiome) are offering a new vision on how our galaxy of microbes impact our lives and how their analysis could help us to make the best lifestyle and nutrition choices. Nor, therefore should it seem unusual to hear that investment in these companies has been pretty substantial. Meggen Taylor for Forbes wrote a great article on the subject, and about Viome… ‘Do You Have The Guts To Take This At-Home Stool Test?‘

Hopefully this is all heathy food for thought, and a pointer at how food influences our guts and our health. Finally, as usual a few articles that grabbed our attention this past week, with our usual reviews of loos and no. 2s… until next week!

1. Just in case you’re wondering… ‘What happens if you eat poop?‘ from Medical News Today.
2. ‘Does Coffee Make you Poop?‘ Investigating the brew-to-poo pipeline by Claire Maldarelli for Popular Science.
3. The Grapes of Sloth!? Why are Sloths so Slow (at pooping?) Jake Rossen explains in MentalFloss.
4. Is toilet paper a giant waste of resources? Sorry, was going to avoid TP talk this week butt… Paul Ratner takes a view for Big Think. For example Paul comments ‘it takes up to 37 gallons of water to make a single roll of toilet paper.‘
5. As April Fools Day came and went not many brands embraced it, as the covid-19 pandemic curbed their enthusiasm. T.L. Stanley covered it for AdWeek.
6. Meanwhile, Poo-Pourri released a new (on April 1st:)) aromatherapy candle called, ‘This Smells like My Poop‘ check it out on NewsFeed Media.

Have a great weekend and the week ahead!