• Question: how is poo made up in the human body

    Asked by obionekanobi to Akshat, Diana, Gemma, Judith on 23 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Gemma Sharp

      Gemma Sharp answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Lovely question from the same person who asked ‘do females ejaculate’! I like this curiosity for how the body works 😉

      Right… Poo is basically just all the stuff the body doesn’t need. It’s the leftovers after the body has taken the good stuff out of something you’ve eaten. That said, it does still contain a fair bit of energy because the body can’t get all the energy out.

      Poo is made in the large intestines. I probably don’t need to tell you that it leaves the body via the anus.

      As for colour (you didn’t ask, but since we’re already talking about, why not?) human poo can be anything from green to dark brown, depending on what you’ve eaten and how healthy you are. The brown colour comes from a lovely mixture of bile and dead red blood cells.

      When babies are first born their poo is a greeny yellow colour because it’s mainly just bile. It goes brown when the baby starts feeding and red blood cells get in it.

      Thanks for the delightful question 🙂

    • Photo: Judith McCann

      Judith McCann answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      The food that you eat is broken down mechanically (by chewing) and chemically (by saliva and stomach acid), you body take whatever nutrients and good stuff it can. Then when it passes through the large intestine water is taken out to leave solid poo 😀 marvellous!

      I probably shouldnt have answered this right before lunch! eswsk!

    • Photo: Akshat Rathi

      Akshat Rathi answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Well explained. Gross as it sounds, it is actually something I never read about before. Thanks for the question.

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