How To Poo

What happens when you let your trash overflow? Does it smell all fresh and look beautiful? Ah… nope. This is exactly what happens inside our bodies when we don’t move our bowels properly. That rubbish builds up and really starts to make a giant mess of our temple. Today I am going to discuss some simple things we can do to make sure we are doing really satisfying and smooth poops everyday and also reveal one supposedly ‘healthy’ source of fibre that could be making you sick.
Episode Resources


Welcome back to The Nick Broadhurst Show. I’m your host, Nick Broadhurst, and you can check out all of my music, my podcast episodes, my music videos, everything I do, at www.iamnickbroadhurst.com. You can listen to all of my music on whatever platform you use, whether it’s Spotify, iTunes, YouTube; just search for my name, Broadhurst, and you can check them all out.

And that song you were listening to was my very first single, “Little Lover.” It holds a very dear place in my heart, because that first solo release… it means a lot to finally birth that into the world. It means overcoming resistance. It means overcoming any fears of being judged. And at the time when I released this, nobody knew me as a singer. I’d always been in bands, playing saxophone and other instruments, and all of a sudden, I’m a vocalist. I did feel some vulnerability putting that out there for the first time, but now I love nothing more than being who I am and accepting, with full gratitude, the gift that I’ve been given, and allowing that to be expressed in the world as much as possible. And that is my mission.

And my mission is also to help people, help you, reconnect or connect deeper with your heart space. Because that’s where each of my songs is written from; it’s written from the heart. So I hope you enjoyed that song. You can check the full song out at iamnickbroadhurst.com/littlelover. And in today’s show notes at iamnickbroadhurst.com/50, I’ll put a link to the music video, because that music video is, honestly, one of the most special music videos I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s so, so beautiful.

And can you believe today is episode #50 of The Nick Broadhurst Show? It’s only March, it’s only been two-and-a-half months, but here we are at episode #50. And I think, for me, that represents how much I love doing this. I love doing it for myself, but I love doing it for you. I love seeing you sharing it on social media. I love seeing your comments on iTunes, the reviews that you leave. I love the private messages. I love everything about The Nick Broadhurst Show, and thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening. Who knows? 55, a hundred thousand, five thousand, I’ll keep going as long as you guys enjoy it and feel there is a need for this in the world.

But today, we’re going to be talking about poo. Yes, the stuff that comes out of your bottom. And this is a super-important topic for anyone who wants to feel and look frickin’ amazing. Imagine this, right: You have a day where you let your trash overflow. And what happens? Does it smell fresh? Does it look beautiful? No. It’s gross, right? And this is exactly what happens inside our bodies when we don’t move our bowels properly. That rubbish just builds up and really starts to make a complete mess of our temple.

So, today, I’m going to talk about some simple things that we can all do to make sure we’re doing really satisfying and smooth poops, every day, and also reveal one supposedly healthy source of fiber that could actually be making you sick. Please, definitely stay tuned for that one.

First, some nuts and bolts about poo. Let’s start with how often we should be going to the loo. For me, personally – and maybe this is too much information, but who cares? That’s what The Nick Broadhurst Show is all about, it’s about sharing everything in my life – for me, it’s after every meal, and sometimes during sport. I joke about that because every second week, when I have my son, Leo, here with us, I have way more bowel movements, because whenever we go to play any sport together, like cricket or soccer, it’s an instant frickin’ poo stimulation. It’s the weirdest thing ever. And within five minutes, I’m on the loo. It’s hilarious. So before school, we literally build in poo time into our play, because Leo knows, as soon as we start kicking that ball, I’m going to go to the toilet.

Anyway, the body knows. It knows when you’re getting physical, that it’s going to have to clean house, because it wants you to perform as good as it can. And it’s going to perform better if you’re cleaner, right? Growing up, my brother and I used to call these “cricket poos,” because whenever we played cricket together growing up, we had the same experience. We still actually joke about it today. But if we’re looking for some guidance how many times we should be doing poops, then we want to be doing at least two really satisfying poos every day, okay?

Now let’s talk about shape, because this is important, and I think it’s something which we may not look at very often, because it requires you looking into your toilet. But it’s important. I have one of my digestive mentors, Maria Hunt, to thank for this knowledge.

Let’s start with those short little hard pebbly poos. You know, the ones that make the “plop” when they come out, and they splash your bum. These little hard ones are probably from dehydration and, possibly, not enough enzyme activity in your digestive tract. So keep an eye on that.

The next one is loose or watery stools. These can be, sometimes, from a really acute viral or bacterial infection. Loose and watery stools is a sign that something is not right in the gut. The body is just trying to tell you, “Hello? Hello? Remember me down here? I’m turning the tap on to remind you that you need to look at this part of your body.”

Remember, the body is a messenger. It’s a beautiful, powerful messenger. And I discovered something really interesting lately: For some people who have loose or watery stools, it can actually be because, after years of not pooing properly, the fecal matter can build up in your colon. It can become like cement, because you’re not getting out. It sticks to the walls of your colon and it gets harder and harder and it builds up, layer after layer, which means that your colon, the space that is available to pass a bowel movement, becomes very small. It makes it really hard for the body to have a bowel movement.

So what does the body do, in its infinite wisdom? It draws water from your body, which is going to dehydrate you. It draws water into the bowel, into the colon, to try and loosen up some of this hard stuff and to make what you’re trying to pass even looser, so it can get through the small gap. I find that so interesting. It’s also an attempt to try to hydrate that area, to dislodge some of that old cement poo. This is one of those times when something like colonics can be really, really helpful, to dislodge some of this really heavy stuff.

Moving on; it’s so funny, people are probably joining me on Instagram Live, coming halfway through this conversation and thinking “Why is he talking about poo?” Bear with me. If you’re only pooing one to three times a week, it is a clear sign that you have constipation, and you definitely want to start looking at your bowel. You want to start seeing what you can do to improve your movement, which we’ll get into soon.

The next one is, if you have pale bowel movements, sort of like the yellow or the gray, it could be a sign that you have less-than-optimal gallbladder or liver function. Bear in mind, there are also certain foods that will change the color of your stool. If you’re having really deep, dark green smoothies or beetroot, for example, it’s going to change the color, so bear that in mind. But I’ll get into what it should look like soon. But anything that’s really pale, yellow or gray, tends to come from gallbladder or liver function. It could be a sign to start looking at that a bit more closely.

If you have greasy, sticky poos that stick to the toilet – you know what I mean – this could mean that you have an inability to absorb nutrients from your food, and not breaking down the fat efficiently. Keep an eye on that one as well, because the fat comes down to gallbladder function and fat metabolism.

The next one is, if you can see food, like pieces of undigested food, in your poop, that means you’re not breaking down new food properly, which could mean that you might have some malabsorption going on. If you want to learn more about your agni, which is your digestive fire, head to my Ayurveda series #1. That podcast episode is iamnickbroadhurst.com/21, where I talk about increasing your digestive fire, your agni, and how important that is for your health, and how, in Ayurveda, they believe the root of all disease is undigested food. So this is really, really important.

The last one is poos that are really stinky and smelly, which generally is either coming from one of two things, or both: poor diet, or an overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria. For me, personally, that was a giveaway, because I thought I was doing everything right, but it was not smelling good. There was something going wrong, and I’ll talk about that in a minute.

So what is a perfect poo? Get to know your poos, first of all. Don’t be afraid to look in the toilet, because it’s telling you a lot about what’s going on with your digestion and your whole digestive tract. But a perfect poo is what Maria Hunt, one of my mentors, calls a “smiling log.” Imagine a really smooth log shape that comes out really easily, not loose, but easy, and has a smile at the end. It would be medium-brown in colour, not too big, and it wouldn’t have an offensive smell. So, guys, we all want to be aiming for smiley, non-smelly logs.

I can’t believe this topic. It’s hilarious, isn’t it? But what comes out of our bodies, telling us so much about what’s going on inside. We want to keep this top of mind. So how do we get smiley logs? The first one is really obvious, and that is a healthy diet. I talk about this a lot in my Longevity series, especially #43, iamnickbroadhurst.com/43. That one’s called “Eat More Plants.”

The second one is emotions. Often, people who don’t have regular movements may also have an inability to let go of things in their life. So if you’re holding on to emotional stuff going on, your bowel holds on to it as well. So if you’re not regular, just stop and pause and have a think. What are you holding on to? Because I can almost guarantee that there’s probably something there emotionally going on, and it may be time to let go of it

The next one is to squat. Now, this is a big one, and I talk about incidental exercise in #41 of my Longevity series, “Move Naturally” – how you build incidental exercise into your day, so it’s just part of your day. I probably shouldn’t use the word “should,” but in this case, I’m going to should all over you – you should be able to do a nice, deep squat. Unless, of course, you’ve got some sort of injury. I’ll let you off the hook if you do. But the way we can develop a great squat is to build it into our days. It’s not hard to do. If you want to squat, you need to do squats.

When I say “squats,” I mean getting down into a deep squat, where you can just rest there, very comfortably. It’s a basic position of the body. It’s one of two resting positions that the human body actually can use, and that is squatting and laying down. They are our two resting positions. When you go to the toilet, put the seat down, jump on up, and squat. If you like, lay some toilet paper down, because you might be greeted by an almighty splash if you don’t.

What this does is get your bowels into the perfect position to let go and evacuate all that trash. Sitting down, my friends, is not natural. If you’re sitting on a normal toilet, that is not a normal position to be in to have a healthy bowel movement. If you’ve been to Asia, you would have seen the holes in the ground where they squat. They’re smart. They get it.

To build it into your day: First thing in the morning, get up and have a big glass of warm water with lemon juice or lime juice with a pinch of sea salt. Drink that, and then get onto the toilet. Squat on the toilet until you do a poo. This might take you 20 minutes sometimes. What it does is get your body into the habit, a routine, of moving its bowels every morning. It can take years to develop this, but if you do it every day, it will come.

Maybe you can do it already, which is amazing. And if you can’t squat yet, that’s cool. Start working on this every day, off the toilet. Still, try and do it on the toilet, and hold on to something so you don’t fall off, because I have. I have fallen off. It’s pretty embarrassing, but it was before I pooped, so it’s all good.

I really want to talk about this topic, because this is the big one. It’s fermented foods. Yes, fermented foods, can be amazing, but I’m going to put a giant caveat on this. This could be controversial, and that’s cool, but I have to say it, because this is my truth. A lot of people, myself included, have Candida and some sort of bacterial overgrowth. Adding more bacteria on top of that can make things worse. I’ll tell you my story in a minute. For me, personally, the Candida I’m working on, right now, was because of a protocol which I did, which was really, really heavy on prebiotics and probiotics and fermented foods.

Now, everyone is different. Everybody’s body is unique, so unique. Bioindividuality. If you want to hear more about this, check out my Ayurveda series #1 at iamnickbroadhurst.com/21. There’s four episodes on that. Everybody’s different. But, personally, I would not be eating fermented foods.

I know, 100%, I haven’t the healthy gut to be able to handle it. How do we know this? We work with a practitioner that knows what they’re doing. If your practitioner doesn’t order what’s called an organic acid test, then I believe they may not know what they’re doing, because the organic acid test is a urine test, and it tells the practitioner what your body is excreting. You don’t need to do, necessarily, a stool analysis. The organic acid test is gold. I did an organic acid test before protocol, so I knew how my gut was performing before the protocol.

Then I did the organic acid test after, because I wasn’t feeling good. I was fine. I did not have any Candida or bacterial overgrowth. A tiny, tiny bit of Candida, and no bacterial overgrowth, also known as SIBO – small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. But seven months into this protocol, I re-tested, because, to be honest, I couldn’t walk up and down my beautiful Bondi promenade without wondering how I’d get back to my house, because I had no energy. And I used to cry. That’s how bad it was. This was last year.

And I thought I was doing everything right, because you know what? Fermented foods, they’re so healthy. Yes, they are. But this massive microbiome craze that’s going on right now, I believe, in all honesty, can be a bit dangerous, because this is a very misunderstood area of our bodies. It’s very new, and we don’t understand very much of this yet.

How can we? We don’t really know anything about our bodies yet. But I think it’s too new to start blanket-applying, whether it’s probiotics or fermented foods, without knowing for sure that you can take it. I re-tested, and I had severe – like I’m talking severe Candida, and severe SIBO. I’d never had SIBO bacterial overgrowth in my life. Never. And all of a sudden, what I thought I was doing was healing me, was actually creating disease in my body.

Now, this is my experience. That’s not going to be everyone’s experience. I’m not saying cut fermented foods out. I’m being cautious with them. I’m asking you to be cautious and tune in and make sure that you know for sure that this is working for your body. The funny thing is, for years, I was eating sauerkraut, and every time I ate it, I got really, really sore teeth. It was bizarre. I kept thinking, maybe I’ve just got sensitive teeth. But my body was telling me, “Nick, this is not for you.”

My teeth were the first thing that it could use – this is just my theory, but to me, it makes perfect sense – if my perfect body, in all its intelligence, can’t figure out how to give me a warning – of course it can, right? So the warning for me was, “This is not for you. You don’t need this. This is not what you need right now. This is causing you harm.”

So it literally would hurt my teeth so badly that I could not chew the rest of my meal. I kept thinking, no, surely this is good for me. I’ll keep pushing through. I’ll keep pushing through. But this organic acid testing showed me, in fine detail, that in fact I had created severe problems in my body by overdoing the fermented foods. And I was going really hard, mind you. I just want to put that out there. I don’t want to become the guy who’s – pardon the pun – poo-pooing fermented foods. I’m not. They are incredible, if you are ready for them. It’s just a caution. I’m just asking you to tune in.

It’s so funny: On Instagram Live, someone called soulfulbum just joined. And that’s what we’re here to talk about, is getting a soulful bum. Hi, soulfulbum.

I do want to touch on colonics really quickly, because, for me, they’re very helpful. They flushed out a truckload. I literally had about 12 sessions where nothing else came out other than Candida. Seriously, that’s how bad it was. I stuck with it long enough and frequently enough, but I started cleaning out my small intestines. You don’t hear about this very often; the focus is always on the large intestine.

Okay, cool, you’ve got water down in your ileocecal valve. That means your colon’s clean. Well, it’s cleaner. But if you have had problems often, the ileocecal valve can open up, stay open, and undigested food can get right up into your small intestine. And that’s what had happened to me. So I started cleaning out my small intestine, and for about 12 sessions, I released nothing but pure black tar. Seriously, I’m not joking. It was frickin’ disgusting. I couldn’t believe it, and my hydrotherapist couldn’t believe it, because she’d never had anyone stick with it long enough to get that far.

We weren’t putting water into the small intestine – let’s just get that straight. We weren’t putting it there. It’s just that the whole system had become clean enough to get to a place where the body could start to let go. Because the colon was getting cleaned out, the liver was saying, “Cool, I’m now in a place where I can start cleaning house.” And the liver started dumping all that stuff it held on to for all those years, God knows what it was. I’ve had massive mold exposure; maybe it was just mold. I don’t know.

But colonics can be very helpful. And I do think, for some people, just doing a big clean-out can be really helpful. You’ve got to be committed, I think, to do it properly. Take advice from someone you trust. Take advice from someone who knows what they’re talking about: Don’t do things blindly. It’s one thing to follow your intuition, but when it comes to your health and your gut, I do believe you need good guidance, and I can’t recommend highly enough Stephen Cabral, to be perfectly honest with you. I know I talk about Stephen a lot, but Stephen literally saved my life. I’m not going to joke. I honestly felt like, last year, I could possibly not make it through the year. And he saved me. So check out StephenCabral.com and listen to his podcast. You will learn so much.

The next one is hydration. This is pretty obvious. If you’re more hydrated, you’ll have better poos. I do believe a great way to hydrate is to start your day with a smoothie. I speak about this in Longevity series episode #44, called “Get Your Antioxidants,” where I talk about the blueberry smoothie which I start the day with.

Now here is my warning to you guys: psyllium husks. Let’s talk about psyllium husks. Here is a big red flag, my friends, because, yes, they’ve been a darling of the health industry for a very long time. And, yes, they can be good, and I use them. However, psyllium husks, whether they’re organic or not, are incredibly infected by mold, by microtoxins and heavy metals. This is something you don’t hear very often.

And, yes, you can buy organic psyllium husks and think you’re doing a good thing. But the truth is, you might be shipping mold and heavy metals straight into your gut. This is not only one. I’m not saying, don’t take psyllium husks, because they can be really, really helpful if you don’t overdo them. What I am saying is, unless you’re using a source which has been tested for purity, for heavy metals and mold, specifically, then I would advise you to stay away from them.

The good thing is, there is a company who’s actually done the research for us, and that company is called Bio-Tech Pharmacal. They have a product called Evac, and it’s just pure psyllium husk powder in capsules. I take six of those at dinner, and what that is, it’s insoluble and soluble fiber, and it passes through your small intestine into the large intestine and digested. It’s going to loosen up and make your stools a bit softer, and give them good form and allow them to pass through and clean your intestinal wall. Really, really important. Really important.

Please, psyllium husks, guys – this is a new thing for me I didn’t understand, but it’s notorious. I’ve heard Dr. McCallum talk about it as well. Notorious for mold and heavy metal contamination. So, please, please, please be careful with that one.

I know there’s a lot of practical advice there, and it’s a lot to absorb. But you can get all of the show notes for today’s episode at iamnickbroadhurst.com/50. You can also get a full transcript of the show. And, please, don’t forget to hit the Subscribe button on your podcast app. That will make sure you get all of the episodes of The Nick Broadhurst Show popping up in your feed.

You know what? This is a funny sort of episode to share with someone. But, hey, it’s still love. If you care about someone, send this episode to them. Hit the Share button, send a text message, an email, a screenshot, whatever it takes. Or share it on your Instagram and tag me @IAmNickBroadhurst so I can say hello.

Remember, today, what a beautiful day it is. It’s a stunning day. It doesn’t matter if the sun is shining, it’s snowing, raining. It doesn’t matter. It’s a beautiful day. We’re so blessed to be alive. We’re so blessed to be in this beautiful body, this Earth suit. So let’s take good care of it. Let’s take out the trash. Let’s make sure that we keep our beautiful Earth suit clean. Let’s nurture it.

Today, I encourage you see the beauty around you. See the beauty within you. Be gentle with yourself, especially when it comes to your digestion, my God. I, my friends, have really overdone it in this department and caused myself a lot of suffering. When it comes to what we eat and how we treat our bodies, we need to treat it with love. We need to treat it with respect. As always, with our bodies, listen to your intuition. If your intuition guides you to a specific practitioner, that’s amazing, because I do believe this is one area we can really take guidance from. As always, thank you so much for being here, and have a beautiful day. I love you heaps. Ciao.

I would love to hear from you, so please tag me @IAmNickBroadhurst on social media, and use the hashtag #TheNickBroadhurstShow, or leave me a comment below (I read every single one!). And if you could take a minute to leave me a 5 star review on iTunes I would be very grateful.

P.S. Always listen to your intuition (and your doctor or practitioner) before trying any new health practice.

6 Comments

    • Fascinating episode. I love your openness and honesty. Thank you!

      Kirsten
      March 13, 2018
      • So glad you are enjoying it! x

        B R O A D H U R S T
        March 13, 2018
    • This is so interesting and helpful! I have the same experience, yet again, with the sauerkraut and fermented foods. I just had to stop because I was so bloated and my tummy hurt and so I thought this can not be right. Are you taking any supplements to rid the candida and SIBO or does the colon cleansing do the trick? Thank you, Nick; you are a true inspiration!

      April 26, 2018
      • Hey Helene, I am working directly with Dr Stephen Cabral to support this process.

        B R O A D H U R S T
        April 29, 2018
    • Very good and interesting about colonic and the rest. Yes I have Candida and suffering. Thanks for your great advice.

      Marcia
      September 15, 2019
      • You are most welcome!

        Nick Broadhurst
        October 19, 2019
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