Broad and bold claims aren’t uncommon when marketing products, and that holds true in the health and wellness sector.
A Jan. 18 post shared on Facebook made one such eyebrow-raising claim in its effort to sell a digestion supplement: “The average American has anywhere from 5 to 15 pounds” of stool “stuck” in their gut.
A nearly 30-minute video accompanying the caption echoed the same talking points, repeatedly claiming that people have “up to 20 extra pounds” of stool “trapped in the gut” and that sometimes “up to 10 or even 15 pounds of undigested waste” are left in the digestive system.
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
(Screenshot from Facebook.)
Average people don’t have anything — let alone 5 to 15 pounds of stool — “stuck” in their gut, doctors told PolitiFact.
“The average man or woman passes, on average, approximately 14 to 16 ounces of stool per day,” said Dr. Darren Brenner, a professor of medicine in the gastroenterology division at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
Even for people experiencing constipation, “there is unlikely to be more than a few pounds of stool in the colon,” Brenner said.
Dr. Geoffrey Preidis, a spokesperson for the American Gastroenterological Association, said that the intestines are covered by a lining of cells that continuously regenerate. Preidis is also an assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital.
“New cells are being made, and old cells are being sloughed off and eliminated in stool,” he said. “The entire lining of the intestines regenerates in less than a week.”
Stool does not get “stuck” in the colon for extended periods of time, Brenner explained, as that would result in damage to the lining of the colon or to the colon’s ability to function.
“The colon works in many ways like an assembly line, and in some individuals with constipation, that line may move more slowly than in others,” Brenner said. “When you do colonoscopies on these individuals, there is no evidence of inflammation or toxicity noted either with the naked eye or under the microscope.”
Additionally, the gut always contains some amount of waste, experts said.
“The colon is never really devoid of stool,” Brenner said. “It is the organ that removes water to solidify stool, and there is always some amount of stool in it.”
The indigestible and unabsorbed components of food form waste. Because waste is also generated by the metabolic activities of the body’s cells and the bacteria in the intestines, small amounts of waste are formed all the time, Preidis said.
Preidis encouraged people to be cautious about health claims that circulate on social media.
“If you are concerned about your colon health or bowel patterns, the best thing you can do is discuss this with your primary practitioner or gastroenterologist,” Brenner added.
Our ruling
A Facebook post claimed “the average American has anywhere from 5 to 15 pounds” of stool “stuck” in their gut.
Doctors told PolitiFact that average people do not have 5 to 15 pounds of stool “stuck” in their gut. The cells that form the lining of the intestine regenerate continuously and are fully replaced in less than a week, meaning that stool does not remain stuck there for extended periods.
Experts also noted that despite what some digestive supplements sellers might claim, it is impossible to fully eliminate all the waste in the gut because it is always being formed.
We rate these claims False.
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