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Articles on Digestion

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No matter its cause, diarrhea is uncomfortable. Rapeepong Puttakumwong/Moment via Getty Images

Why do people get diarrhea?

Poop comes in many shapes, sizes and textures. The kind that’s too runny might be the result of wayward germs, Crohn’s disease or lactose intolerance.
Brown poop can indicate good health. Vitalii Barida/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Why is my poop brown?

The answer is more complicated than you might think. It has to do with how your body gets rid of old red blood cells.
The finicky fruit took some time to adapt to California’s climate. Print Collector via Getty Images

Love avocados? Thank the toxodon

If it weren’t for historical and biological happenstance, few would be eating avocados today.
Strange coloured poo is usually due to the food we’ve eaten, medication we’ve taken, or the processes involved in breaking down what we ingest. Nomad_Soul/Shutterstock

Why is my poo green?

Poo can come in a range of colours, including green. Most of the time there’s nothing to worry about, but there are a few signs it’s time to see your GP.
Your tummy is a juicy rollercoaster ride for food! Flickr/Stuart Richards

Curious Kids: how does my tummy turn food into poo?

Your stomach works very hard with some other body parts to break down food into small pieces. Your body takes in what it needs and the rest is turned into poo.
It’s normal to have an upset tummy when you’re nervous. from shutterstock.com

Nervous tummy: why you might get the runs before a first date

When we get nervous, a number of processes occur in the brain that are passed onto the stomach and affect the digestive process. This is a hangover from our hunter-gatherer days.
The process of passing a bowel motion is more complicated that you might think. Chakrapong Zyn/Shutterstock

What’s the best way to go to the toilet – squatting or sitting?

Pauline Hanson’s concern about the ATO installing squat toilets to cater for its increasingly diverse workforce has prompted debate about the best way to go to the toilet: sitting or squatting.
OK you can trust this food label. But calories? Forget it. Bryan Kennedy

Why most food labels are wrong about calories

Food labels seem to provide all the information a thoughtful consumer needs, so counting calories should be simple. But things get tricky because food labels tell only half the story. A calorie is a measure…
Bacterial communities in the gut assemble within weeks of birth in distinct, patterned progressions. Flickr: bradleypjohnson

Nature, not nurture, holds key to gut bacteria

The types of bacteria that colonise an infant’s developing gut are influenced more by internal development than childbirth or early nutrition, according to a study published today in the journal PNAS…
About 40% of people produce smelly gas because of a certain bacteria in their bowels. HyoJung Kim

Health Check: the ins and outs of burping and farting

To understand why we fart, you need to know something about the volume of gases produced in the bowels first. Imagine how much space 25 litres of gas would occupy – about one third of the interior of a…

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