#286 Why Looking at Your Poo Is Key to Understanding Your Health with Dr Emily Leeming
26th Feb 2025
What is your gut trying to tell you? It might not speak in words, but it’s always sending signals through your energy levels, mood or even our skin. But most of us don’t think about those little signs as part of a bigger picture.
And a blatant way your gut communicates your general state of health, is through the state of your poo! Quickly flushed away, many of us don’t take the time to examine our poop for signs of health, but if you’re interested in gut health, keeping a track of your stools could be more informative than any wearable or microbe test you can buy!
Today, we’re diving into the world of what our poop says about our gut health with Dr. Emily Leeming, a scientist at King’s College London, registered dietitian and the author of Genius Gut.
You’ll learn:
- What to look for in your poop and how to tell that your digestive system is working optimally.
- Whether the evidence for eating 30 Plants a week is actually that strong
- How menopause can affect the gut
- How long it would take to reset or ‘heal’ the gut after years of excess sugar, poor eating or antibiotics
We also talk about the superpowers of fibre. How it creates “an obstacle course for sugar”, how it can stretch the gut and signal to your brain that you’ve eaten enough and even how it can lower your cholesterol.
Episode guests
Dr Emily Leeming PhD MSc RD is a microbiome scientist at King’s College London, registered dietitian, former chef, TEDx speaker and author of Genius Gut: The Life-Changing Science of Eating for your Second Brain. She writes for The Daily Mail, Women’s Health and frequently appears in the media including Vogue, BBC Radio, The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Telegraph.
