Dr. Trisha Pasricha

And it's partially an issue of like what is in those ultra-processed foods and also partially what's not in those foods.

Like we're not getting whole plant-based foods as much as we used to.

But also our entire position for how we're having a bowel movement is very different from how people used to poop thousands of years ago.

We used to squat.

Okay, and I say that and everyone's like, oh my God, I would never.

And I get that.

Like everyone likes to sit on this nice little porcelain throne and it's comfortable and it's easy.

But actually, if you think about it, our colon is this long tube and at the end is the rectum.

When we squat, we are basically stepping on a hose.

Like picture that.

There is this muscle that's called the puborectalis muscle that creates this sling around the colon.

And it chokes it tight and makes this little kink in it when we're sitting at this 90 degree angle like we are right now in our chairs.

And that's a kind of a good thing.

Like when we're sitting at work, we don't want to have this like constant call to go to the bathroom.

But we sit the exact same way when we need to go.

And what we're doing is choking off that tube.

If we were to squat, that tube would straighten up.

That muscle, that sling muscle would relax and it would be nice and straight.

So the simplest thing you could do, of course, would be to get a stool and raise your knees above the level of your waist, and that can kind of open up that angle again.

A lot of people aren't doing that.