What it means if you take a while to poop

It’s the latest viral challenge that has got people all over the world hooked.

And before you think it’s another pointless trend, this one may actually be beneficial.

What is the #blupoopchallenge

It’s exactly what its name suggests and involves eating two muffins (with food-colouring) for breakfast to determine whether your poop turns blue.

Why you may ask? Well, the now viral challenge was developed by scientists to encourage people to get insight into their own gut health.

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“I’m not usually a baker but I love this idea! Measuring gut transit time using blue muffins,” one person wrote on Twitter.

“I’ve convinced my wife we should do this. Whilst I am interested in my gut health it’s mainly because we’re on a diet and I want to eat muffins, blue or not #bluepoopchallenge,” another person added.

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How does it work?

You can bake your own muffins at home by using the bluepoop recipe.

The idea is to then eat two of the blue-coloured muffins in the morning and whenever you go to the bathroom for a number two, take note of the colour. If it’s blue or green tinted, note down the time.

Once you have determined the colour of your poop, you can discover your ‘poo personality’ via the ZOE website — who are behind the challenge.

The recipe includes ingredients such as granulated sugar, vanilla extract and baking powder something ZOE says you wouldn’t eat daily, but since it’s a one-off science experiment, “we’re including them”.

The recipe can also be modified (to gluten-free) but the healthcare company advises to use enough blue dye.

Why measure gut health through poop?

Dr Sarah Berry, leader of nutrition sciences at King’s College London, who worked with ZOE in publishing a study in the British Medical Journal, asked thousands of participants to eat specially-prepared blue muffins so they could measure their transit time.

“There are several scientific ways of measuring gut transit time, such as swallowing special capsules or a small wireless device,” Dr Berry said in a statement.

“But these methods are complicated and invasive and can’t easily be done at home. Our data shows that transit time, tracked with blue dye, is an indicator of gut health, and is better than

other non-invasive methods available.”

Scientists found that transit times (time it takes for food to travel through your gut) varied from less than 12 hours to many days, with an average time of around 29 hours.

The tests revealed that shorter transit times were generally associated with better health, less abdominal fat, and healthier responses to food, according to ZOE.

Gut transit time is not only affected by diet, lifestyle and hydration, but also by the trillions of bugs living in the gut, known as the gut microbiome, the findings also revealed.

Those who took longer to poop had more microbes that feed on protein along with fewer fibre-loving bugs that produce helpful molecules called short-chain fatty acids, which are linked to better gut health.

“Interestingly, we also found that people with longer transit times were more likely to have a greater diversity of microbes in their gut, which is often associated with better gut health. This suggests that more microbiome diversity may not always be a sign of better health for people who don’t poop very often,” it said in a statement.

But it’s not all about being first to the finish line.

“People with the very fastest transit times, suggesting they had diarrhoea, tended to have a less healthy gut microbiome,” the statement read.

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Professor Tim Spector, Epidemiologist from King’s College London, who is the scientific founder of ZOE, said gut health can influence our overall health too, going on to list its impacts: “how well we digest food, how we deposit fat, our mental state, whether we’re hungry or full, and it’s really important for our immune system as well.”

“The Blue Poop Challenge is a simple way to find out what is going on in your gut. All you need are a couple of blue muffins and a spirit of curiosity to take that first step,” Mr Spector said.