Is Your Poop Healthy? Warning Signs You Need to Know | EP 399

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Dr. Gundry Podcast

Episode 399: Is Your Poop Healthy? Warning Signs You Need to Know
Host: Dr. Steven Gundry
Date: April 14, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Dr. Gundry delves into a rarely discussed but crucial health indicator: your poop. He explains how the state of your bowel movements reveals critical insights about your gut health, digestion, nutrient absorption, and long-term wellbeing. Drawing from medical research and decades of clinical experience, Dr. Gundry covers what healthy stool should look like, why it matters, common misconceptions, and practical strategies for improving gut health.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Is Poop, Really?

Timestamps: 01:38 – 06:30

• Traditional Misconceptions:
  Dr. Gundry reveals that medical schools used to teach that poop consisted largely of undigested food. Modern research, however, proves otherwise:

  "The vast majority of what comes out of your rear end is actually living bacteria." (03:00, Dr. Gundry)

• Role of the Microbiome:
  Most of the bacteria in our colon are anaerobic, and advancements like the Human Microbiome Project have shown that stool is primarily dead, fragmented, and living bacteria.
• What Should Healthy Poop Look Like?
  The ideal is a large, cohesive, snake-like mass in the toilet—neither too hard nor too soft.

  "When you have a bowel movement, you should look into the toilet and see a giant coiled snake looking back at you." (05:00, Dr. Gundry, quoting Dr. Terry Wahls)

• Warning Sign — Floating Stool:
  Floating stools often mean undigested fat and possible digestive enzyme insufficiency.

  "If you have consistently floating stool, that means it actually has a high fat content... One of the first things I recommend doing is getting yourself some digestive enzymes." (06:15, Dr. Gundry)

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2. Why Poop Quality Is Important for Health

Timestamps: 06:30 – 11:34

• Gut Bacteria and Weight Fluctuation:
  Rapid weight loss during short-term fasts primarily reflects loss of gut bacteria (not fat).

  "That weight loss is, interestingly enough, that four to five pounds of bacteria that make you their home." (07:30, Dr. Gundry)

• Importance of Microbiome Diversity:
  With thousands of bacterial species possible, modern lifestyles and exposure to antibiotics (in medicine, animal products, and even water) severely reduce microbiome diversity.
• Glyphosate and Microbiome Damage:
  Glyphosate (Roundup) is highlighted as a major contributor to gut dysbiosis.

  "Glyphosate was patented as an antibiotic. It absolutely destroys gut bacteria..." (10:20, Dr. Gundry)

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3. Good Bacteria vs. "Gang Members"

Timestamps: 12:55 – 18:30

• The Role of Prebiotics and Fiber:
  "Gut buddies," or beneficial bacteria, thrive on prebiotics—mainly soluble fiber (polysaccharides) that arrives undigested in the colon and is fermented by good bacteria.
• Soluble vs. Insoluble Fiber:
  • Soluble fiber: Feeds gut buddies and leads to healthy, voluminous stools.
  • Insoluble fiber: Cannot be digested by bacteria. Dr. Gundry likens it to "swallowing razor blades or nails" and notes it can irritate the bowel lining, stimulating movements out of discomfort rather than health.

    "Most insoluble fiber is from the hulls of grains... some of the worst things that you can use for bowel health." (14:30, Dr. Gundry)

• The Fiber Myth:
  The widespread notion that all fiber is healthy originated from misunderstanding in early nutrition research, misapplying findings from African diets (rich in soluble fiber from yams) to Western diets (rich in insoluble grain fiber).

  "He [Burkitt] became a poop fanatic... and he said, wow, it's these giant poops that are preventing them from having these colon diseases." (15:20, Dr. Gundry)

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4. Practical Advice: Optimizing Gut Health

Timestamps: 18:30 – 23:55

• Daily Vegetable Intake:
  Dr. Gundry and peers like Dr. Terry Wahls advocate for high intake of leafy vegetables (6–9 cups a day), though he admits this is challenging for most people.
• Prebiotic Recommendations:
  • Inulin (chicory, radicchio, frisée, Jerusalem artichokes)
  • Psyllium powder
  • Ground flaxseeds
  • Apple pectin
  • Modified citrus pectin (noted as expensive but useful for breaking biofilms)
• Diarrhea & Constipation Management:
  • Lectins as a Culprit:

    "If you have a problem with diarrhea, the first thing I want you to do is get lectins out of your diet. And I think you'll be rather impressed with what happens." (22:20, Dr. Gundry)

  • Raw Vegetables Warning:
    Raw cruciferous and leafy vegetables can worsen diarrhea for sensitive individuals; they should be thoroughly cooked—preferably in a pressure cooker.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the reality of stool composition:

  "The vast majority is not residual things that you ate, it's the bacteria that ate what you ate." (03:15, Dr. Gundry)

• On what healthy poop looks like:

  "When you look into the toilet, you should see a giant anaconda looking back up at you." (05:18, Dr. Gundry, recalling a humorous editorial anecdote)

• On insoluble fiber:

  "Think of insoluble fiber as swallowing razor blades or nails... it irritates the lining of your intestines." (14:05, Dr. Gundry)

• On solving diarrhea:

  "Spoiler alert, number one, if you have a problem with diarrhea, the first thing I want you to do is get lectins out of your diet." (22:20, Dr. Gundry)

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Listener Q&A

Timestamps: 24:27 – 25:35

• Question: On the recent eye drop recall and long-term effects.
  Dr. Gundry's Advice:

  "Eyes are a very interesting, not very safe place to be putting drops into. They're not as immunologically protected as...our skin. Just be careful whenever particularly you're using something that wasn't medically prescribed for your eyes." (24:38, Dr. Gundry)

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Actionable Takeaways

• Aim for large, well-formed, sinking stool—a sign of abundant beneficial bacteria and good fat absorption.
• Limit antibiotics to medically necessary situations and choose animal products raised without unnecessary antibiotics.
• Focus on prebiotics and soluble fiber from vegetables (e.g., artichokes, radicchio, chicory), and supplement if needed.
• Beware of overconsumption of insoluble fiber (grain hulls).
• If experiencing chronic diarrhea, remove lectins and avoid raw cruciferous vegetables, opting for well-cooked options.

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Tone and Language

Dr. Gundry’s style is warm, occasionally humorous, and conversational. He distills complex medical research into vivid analogies (like "gang members" and "gut buddies") and practical tips, with a patient-focused, empathetic approach grounded in evidence and extensive clinical experience.

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Recommended Listening Segments

• Poop composition & healthy appearance: 01:38 – 06:30
• Microbiome, antibiotics, and glyphosate: 06:30 – 11:34
• Soluble vs. insoluble fiber and practical fiber guidance: 12:55 – 18:30
• Prebiotics and handling gut issues: 18:30 – 23:55
• Listener question on eye drops: 24:27 – 25:35

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For anyone interested in optimizing gut health, recognizing warning signs in bowel movements, and taking practical steps for better digestion and long-term wellness, this episode is essential listening.

Transcript

[Dr. Steven Gundry]

The bathroom might not be where most

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

people look for health answers, but it should be. Every day, your body sends signals about your gut, digestion and even your future health. Today we're taking a closer look at what your poop can reveal about inflammation, nutrient absorption, and longevity. In this episode, I'll break down the key signs to watch for and what they may be telling you about your body.

[Podcast Host / Promotional Announcer]

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[Dr. Steven Gundry]

Topic 1 what exactly is poo? Now, what's fascinating to most people is we've always been told that our bowel movement is basically unused food particles that weren't absorbed from our small intestine and large intestine. And believe it or not, I was taught that in medical school, and that was before we actually learned about the microbiome. And for those of you who have listened to me, the microbiome is those hundreds of trillions of bacteria, about 4 to 5 pounds of bacteria that live in your primarily colon, but also in your small bowel. And there's even some that live in your stomach. So the vast majority of what comes out of your rear end is actually living bacteria. And that's what's so interesting. It is. The vast majority is not residual things that you ate, it's the bacteria that ate what you ate. Now, why didn't we know that? Well, it turns out that so many of the bacteria, particularly that live in our cold, cannot live in oxygen. They're what are called anaerobic bacteria. Bacteria that can live on oxygen are called aerobic bacteria, like aerobic exercising. And for those of you HIIT junkies, anaerobic exercise is when your muscles no longer burn oxygen and have to produce lactic acid. Anyhow, most bacteria in our colon are anaerobic, and it's very difficult to grow anaerobic bacteria in traditional Culture medium. So for years and years and years, we actually had no idea how much of our poop was bacteria. But thanks to the Human Microbiome project, we now know that actually the vast majority of what you're pooping out is dead bacteria, pieces of bacteria, and living bacteria. So these bacteria get made by eating the foods that you eat. And that's where it gets into some very interesting things about feeding bacteria what you want them to to eat. And as most of you know who've read or listened to the Longevity Paradox, there's a big difference between the bacteria that you want living in you and the bacteria that you don't want living into you. And that's why we're gonna talk about this today. So, first question, what should a good poop look like? Well, there's no absolute definition of you having a perfectly looking poop if you listen to my good friend Dr. Terry Wahls. When you have a bowel movement, you should look into the toilet and see a giant coiled snake looking back at you. And those of you who have heard this story, when I was writing the Plant Paradox, I actually, in my unedited edition, said that when you look into the toilet, you should see a giant anaconda looking back up at you. And my dear editor, Julie Wills said, you realize there is a movie called Anaconda where an anaconda comes out of an airline toilet. And she said, I don't think we want that visual in the book, so we changed it to a coiled snake. But the point is, you want a large mass staring up at you from the toilet bowl. And if it looks like soft serve ice cream, that's okay. If it looks harder and has markings, that's also okay. What you don't really want to see is actually floaters. If you have consistently floating stool, that means it actually has a high fat content. And almost all of the fat that you eat should be absorbed and not be in your stool. And that actually can mean that you have a digestive enzyme insufficiency. And it's one of the first things to spot. If you've got floating stools that then one of the first things I recommend doing is getting yourself some digestive enzymes. And those can be both bile acids and pancreatic enzymes. These are readily available. You actually don't have to spend a lot of money and just start taking digestive enzymes with your meals and report back to see if you've got some nice sinkers in your stool. Now topic two, why is poop important? Those of you who have Done water fasting or juice fasting, may have noticed that you will lose about three to five pounds in a three or maybe four day water fast. And most people think this is miraculous weight loss. But what you've actually done, and you probably noticed this in the bathroom, is you took away the food that your gut bacteria generally eats. And so that weight loss is, interestingly enough, that four to five pounds of bacteria that make you their home. So rather than some miracle, that weight loss is just those bacteria not eating and in a way, starving to death. I've done this so many times, I get a kick out of it. If I go on a three day water fast, I will, no matter what my weight is, lose about three to five pounds. And then when I start eating, I will once again gain those three to five pounds, maybe minus one pound for the three days that I didn't eat anything. But it always comes back. And that's because I'm regrowing my microbiome. So the more you think about what's living inside of you, and as I talk about the longevity paradox, what's living inside of you is incredibly important for your long term health. Now, what's equally as important, and this is where we get into constipation and diarrhea and bloating, we know that there are bacteria that should normally exist in all of us. Again, there's at least 10,000 different bacteria that have now been discovered that potentially can make us their home. And this number goes up all the time. About six months ago, another thousand species of bacteria were discovered through the Microbiome project. The problem is the vast majority of us have very few species of those 10,000 bacteria. And that's because of what I talk about. Number one, we all take too many antibiotics. Now, don't hear me wrong. Antibiotics properly administered can be life saving. And that's not what I want you to hear. In other words, antibiotics properly done should be life savings. But we use them excessively for colds, the flu, which they don't work on. Most of our ailments that we catch, or viruses that antibiotics don't work on. They're in almost all of our conventionally raised animal products, whether it's the beef you eat, the chicken you eat, the pork you eat, because they've been fed to these animals to make them fatten up quickly. Antibiotics are in our water supply. It's something that really can't be filtered out by water treatment plants. So we're under this constant barrage of things that destroy our microbiome and the Most recent addition to the problem is glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. Glyphosate was patented as an antibiotic. It absolutely destroys gut bacteria and it's one of the main reasons I think our health has deteriorated and our bowel problems have increased. So normally we have this huge great diverse flora of microbiome and they're there waiting for you to feed them. But so many of us, that microbiome is very deficient and we, we have very few bugs doing the work.

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[Dr. Steven Gundry]

Now the bugs we do have in general fall into two categories. And you've heard me talk about good guys or gut buddies and gang members. And the good guys, let's start focusing on them. First. The good guys actually like what are called prebiotics. Prebiotics are primarily what used to be called soluble fiber. And we'll come to insoluble fiber in a little bit. But soluble fiber are long chain sugars. They're called polysaccharides. And these sugar molecules are very difficult for us to digest in our stomach and our small intestine. And they arrive undigested primarily into our colon where they are eaten by the gut buddies. The more of these long chain sugars that you eat, the more the gut buddies eat. And they make little gut buddies. So you got family after family of gut buddies. And what's fascinating with soluble fiber is that you get giant poops because that soluble fiber is eaten by your gut buddies and they make more gut buddies. And so that's where these big giant poops come from. Now, insoluble fiber is the exact opposite. And as its name implies, insoluble fiber cannot be digested by by any bacteria. And what's interesting about insoluble fiber is I like you to think of insoluble fiber as swallowing razor blades or nails. And there's very good proof that insoluble fiber actually irritates the lining of your intestines. And you are so irritated from these razor blades going through you, then it makes you have a bowel movement. It actually stimulates you to have a bowel movement because you're trying to get rid of these things. What's fascinating is most insoluble fiber is from the hulls of grains. So, for instance, wheat germ is all insoluble fiber. Wheat germ agglutinin is one of the worst lectins, and it's insoluble, insoluble fiber. The insoluble fiber on the lining of barley or rye is insoluble fiber. And so the things that so many people take to promote regularity are actually some of the worst things that you can use for bowel health. And I've talked about this in the past, the idea of fiber being healthy. We was discovered by an English surgeon by the name of Dennis Burkitt. English surgeons, and I was one of them in my training are called Mr. Rather than Doctor. So he is Mr. Dennis Burkitt. And some people know him from Burkitt's lymphoma, which he discovered and named. But he was a colon surgeon who was went on missionary work to Africa to operate on poor African people who had colon problems. And unfortunately, when he got there, he couldn't find any colon disease. He couldn't find diverticulosis, he couldn't find diverticulitis, he couldn't find colon cancer. And he said, what the heck, you know, what am I going to do down here? And he became fascinated by the giant mountains of poops that these Africans would have. And he said, well, he became a poop fanatic. And he would go around following these Africans out into the field and measuring their poops, photographing their poops. And he said, wow, it's these giant poops that are preventing them from having these colon diseases. And he saw that they were primarily eating prebiotic fiber, mostly in the form of yams. And so he said, aha, it's the fiber in these yams that they're eating that makes them resistant to colon cancer and diverticulitis. So fiber is what we should be eating. He got back to England, and England had a lot of fibrous foods, but they were in the fragrance form of wheat and oats and rye and barley, and they actually didn't have a lot of yams and sweet potatoes. He didn't know, but he thought fiber is fiber. So the idea that you should be eating fiber came from him observing soluble fiber and not realizing that insoluble fiber was actually a problem. So that's where the entire concept of fiber being beneficial. So people like Dr. Terry Wahls and I will tell you that, you know, having these giant mounds of poop every day is a great idea. Now, should you have one or two or three? Again, it really depends on how much soluble fiber is going into your diet every day. Now, as you know, Dr. Terry Wahls would like you to eat about nine cups of vegetables every day. That's a lot of vegetables. My wife Penny and I eat a giant mixing bowl of salad every day, and I would say that's about, oh, six or seven cups of various lettuces and leaves every day. On the other hand, most people, on a practical basis, cannot do that. So that's the way that the idea of getting prebiotics, either in a form of powder or even in the form of capsules came about. And there are a lot of ways to get prebiotics in your. Again, some of my favorite prebiotics are inulin. You can buy it as a powder, you can buy it as a sweetener. You can find it in, for instance, the sweetener sweet leaf. It's also in the sweetener. Just like sugar, Inulin is very present in the chicory family of vegetables, like radicchio, the Italian red lettuce. It's not a lettuce at all in frise, in Belgian endive. It's really present in artichoke hearts and artichokes. It's great in Jerusalem artichokes. Some people call it sunchokes. Another option that's very cheap is you can get psyllium powder, which is a great prebiotic. You can actually use flaxseeds. Ground flaxseeds are a great prebiotic. Another option is to get yourself apple pectin. It's readily available. It's really cheap. It's another great prebiotic. One of my favorite prebiotics is modified citrus pectin. Now, unfortunately, it's pretty expensive, but it's been actually shown to break up what are called biofilms of bad bacteria in your intestines. And I use it extensively in my patients who have really bad markers of biofilms in their intestines. And we can measure this on blood tests so many times. What I see in most of my patients with diarrhea and or constipation is they're eating a very high lecture diet. And just remember that lectins break the tight junctions on the lining of our gut. And not only does that allow lectins into our gut wall, but spoiler alert, it's actually the cause of water entering the lining of our gut and into our bowels. This was actually discovered by Dr. Fasano from Johns Hopkins, who realized that cholera, and most of us have heard of cholera, it's one of the most deadly diseases there is. And cholera victims die of massive, massive watery diarrhea. And Dr. Fazano was fascinated with, well, why? Why does the cholera bacteria cause this? And he found that the cholera bacteria actually broke tight junctions. And when those tight junctions broke, water from our bloodstream and our lymph flooded into our gut and that caused the diarrhea. And it was that observation that he learned that gluten, which is lectin, uses the exact same pathway as cholera does to break tight junctions. So, spoiler alert, number one, if you have a problem with diarrhea, the first thing I want you to do is get lectins out of your diet. And I think you'll be rather impressed with what happens. And that's one of the first things I do with any of my patients. The second warning, I have a lot of my patients with diarrhea do not realize that even foods in the future that are going to be really good for you to eat, particularly raw vegetables, raw cruciferous vegetables in particular, have lectins in them. Them, and believe it or not, there is a lectin in spinach that some of us react to raw. When we ingest those and we're having problems with diarrhea, it often makes the diarrhea worse. So if I have a patient with gut issues with diarrhea, I don't let them have raw vegetables, raw cruciferous vegetables, first they can have them, but they basically got to cook them within an inch of their life, particularly in a pressure cooker. So if you got diarrhea and you're listening to me and you're reading the plant paradox in there, kind of hidden saying, hey, if you've got intestinal issues and diarrhea, don't start with the three day cleanse and don't eat a lot of raw vegetables. And it's a really good trick to remember.

[Podcast Host / Narrator]

Now it's time for the Question of the week. A question from Elthinsider24 who recently wrote in. They asked Dr. Gundry, what's your take on the recent eye drop recall and should people be concerned about long term effects? Well, you know, eyes are a very interesting, not very safe place to be putting drops into. They're not as immunologically protected as many of our other organs or certainly our skin. So just be careful whenever particularly you're using something that wasn't medically prescribed for your eyes. I'll leave it at that. Now it's time for the review of the week. A review from im v9999 who gave the podcast 55 stars and says so very grateful for all the guidance Dr. Gundry has given and continues to give. I have benefited from all of it. A plus and gold star. Well, thank you very much IM V9999. You know, I see patients six days a week and have been doing this for well over 30 years now. And I do it because I learn from my patients every day and what I learn I pass on to you. So thank you for enjoying it. I'm glad it's working out for you.

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I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dr. Gundry podcast. If you did, please share this with family and friends. You never know how one of these health tips can completely transform someone's life when you take the time to share it with them. There's also the Dr. Gundry Podcast YouTube channel where we have tens of thousands of free health insights that can help you and your loved ones live a long, vital life. Let's do this together.