this post was submitted on 16 May 2026
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My elementary school teacher told us once that Americans only poop once a week. The climate is colder in North America, so their intestines pack the poop together very densely such that they only need to poop once a week. She said you'd be sent to the doctor if you poop daily in America.

Is this true?

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[–] Krusty@quokk.au 10 points 4 days ago (25 children)

I have a friend that's a "fruitarian" (he's been convinced that humans are frugivores by the influencers.) He says he loves pooping, which he says he does about 6 movements a day.

I've tried to explain that we're omnivores and high fruit diets are clinically proven to not be healthy long-term... Dude is skin and bones (he's literally wasting) and won't listen. He'll eat some veggies, but only raw. He avoids anything cooked in anyway because 'cooking stuff creates toxins and causes disease/cancer and other animals don't cook their food.'

Nutritional science suggests 9-12 servings of fruits and vegetables daily, but the limit for fruit is 4-5 servings (while there's no drawback to additional vegetables, but it's also not significantly (statistically) healthier). Fructose does funny things to metabolism for reasons we don't fully understand (many claim it acts like a hormone), but the fiber seems to help, though. Juices should be highly limited and basically treated as refined sugar. Science also strongly suggests properly cooking foods....

Eating lots of(or exclusively) raw fruit will most likely result in poorly/partially digested diarrhea, roughly apple sauce consistency and generally still looks more like food than poo(which describes my fruitarian friend's BMs, which he doesn't find problematic, apparently he considers it a feature and not a bug -- short intestinal transit time is point of pride for him, for some reasons, basically... he thinks if his poop stays in him too long it becomes toxic, so he thinks a normal healthy stool is toxic).

Long term risks include severe nutrient deficiencies that may carry with them permanent physiological damage. Yet he still isn't convinced by the numerous clinical studies on this ... Then again, he also thinks WiFi is unhealthy for some asinine/dubious reasons so he turns off his router at night so it doesn't disturb his sleep (his roommates plug it right back in, lol.)

He used to eat normally and supported Bernie Sanders. Now he's technically a raw vegan(he calls himself/humans in general frugivores) and believes so much dumb shit(anti vac, no longer respects trans pronouns, etc), and obviously he started supporting MAGA/Trump, so we don't talk much anymore.

The problem with realizing that you have cognitive impairments is that you have cognitive impairments. It's a vicious cycle I've sadly seen in multiple raw vegans. The longer they do it, the crazier(delusional, disordered) they get. Like my fruitarian friend doing weeks long water fasts as well.... He looks like someone with severe anorexia/bulimia. But oh boy does he pack it in! And within hours it's squirting out the other end. He's one of those people that don't fully close the bathroom door. So everyone can hear the squirts and splashes! Still less annoying than being lectured to about eating healthy by someone as clueless as they are confident.... Plus his 'shit' doesn't really stink, as it's not digested. Another point of pride for him.

We've evolved to eat cooked food. Please cook your vegetables, people. Salads are fine but most of our veggies will be very much more digestible and nutritious after being cooked! Some ruffage/raw plants are beneficial, though. Other animals need to chew chud basically all day to meet basic nutritional needs from vegetation. We have cooking, and it's awesome.

[–] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I have a friend that’s a “fruitarian”

I could have sworn that's exactly how Steve Jobs ended up dying lol (But I'm not a doctor)

You should really try to inform your friend the dangers of such a severe gap in a biologically-driven omnivore's diet and the future health consequences. Even a single potato would go a really long way.

Edit: Nvm, I scrolled past the tl;dr and didn't see that you've attempted to numerous times already

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[–] ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

I used to shit like every two to three days, especially if I were out backpacking. Now it's more like daily.

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (4 children)
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[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Well, there was one lemmy post...

E: 3y ago and deleted, but apparently lemmygrad (despite my hatred for them) retained a copy thankfully. https://lemmygrad.ml/post/793635

[–] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 2 points 3 days ago

I was worried that lemmy wouldn’t reach the pinnacle of quality to match reddit, and then this post came along to soothe those fears. Good luck on your no poop quest.

Hahahahaha that entire post was crazy start to finish

[–] IdontplaytheTrombone@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)
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[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 8 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

No

And holy shit! to my astonishment your teacher just said the dumbest thing i have heard this year, and i have suffered through Donald Trump speeches….

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[–] MidsizedSedan@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Here in hot Australia, there are so many toilets to help with the diarrhea every summer...

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

I just flip upside down in my ground harness and let the poops fall out into space.

[–] teelin134@programming.dev 4 points 3 days ago (5 children)

I am European and growing up I pooped 7 days a week. When I spent some time in the US, it dropped to 2 times a week. Must be something in the water...

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[–] socsa@piefed.social 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

American here. I don't shit. My digestive system is perfect and produces no waste.

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[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago (3 children)

When I was a kid, I’d poop once or twice a week, but I had a weird diet (vegetarian from very early childhood in a meat-eating family, so I drank a lot of milk, because my parents worried about protein).

Nowadays, I probably poop 1-3 times a day, depending on how much I eat. I’m vegan now, and I get more than enough fiber without any of the, uh, fixative properties of dairy, so that probably has a lot to do with it.

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[–] notsosure@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 days ago (7 children)

I’m guessing this notion came about from the Baptist and evangelical folks, who indeed try to reduce the frequency of bodily functions, as they see those as sin. As a result, Lutherans and the like indeed only do number twos every couple of weeks. But the rest of Americans (the silent minority), who live on a diet of fiber free fast food, sodas and watery beer, open the diarrhea valve at least twice a day. Only in America!

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[–] Seppo@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 days ago (4 children)

It's important to remember that teachers are on average less educated that the average citizen. My high school biology teacher told us boys with restless legs were just masturbating their anus in class....

After having worked IT in several schools over the last 20 years (both high schools and universities), I can honestly say that teachers are the most misinformed and least knowledgeable professionals I've ever worked with. Only principals are worse, and most I've met could probably be classified as mentally disabled.

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[–] GarboDog@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Uhm… what????? Maybe it’s because we moved to EU now but even when we lived in USA that wasn’t a normal thing no.

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago (3 children)
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