Gross Question About Poo!

[AmandaD]

All right. Nasty question. I was at my celiac support group meeting this weekend and the registered dietitian there discussed getting more fiber in the Celiac diet. She made a comment that bowel movements that sink don't have enough fiber in them and aren't good. We should have bowel movements that float.

Is this true for the celiac? I read somewhere else on this board that we should have sinking stools because that indicates absorption.

Could someone please clarify this? So much information, so little I understand!

[psawyer]

I think that dietician is simply wrong. Stools that float are generally indicative of malabsorption, and are one of the many possible symptoms of untreated celiac disease. It is fat, not fiber, in the stool that causes the floating.

It is true that folks eating gluten-free tend to have less dietary fiber than others, since wheat bran and oat bran are major sources of fiber in the mainstream diet. Celiacs tend to get fiber in smaller quantities from other sources, corn being one of them.

[Guest BellyTimber]

Also cabbage

Also rice-bran

Finger-millet powder if you can get it

Whole rice

[VegasCeliacBuckeye]

"Floating stools"

Stools that float are generally associated with some degree of malabsorption of nutrients or excessive flatus (gas).

Considerations:

Floating stools are seen in a variety of different situations. Most are diet-related or caused by episodes of diarrhea that accompany an acute gastrointestinal infection. A change in dietary habits can lead to an increase in the amount of gas produced by bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract.

Similarly, acute gastrointestinal (GI) infections can result in increased gas content in the intestines due to rapid movement of food through the GI tract. One misconception is that floating stools are caused by an increase in the fat content of the stool. In fact, it is increased gas levels in the stool that make it less dense and allow it to float.

Another cause of floating stools is malabsorption. More than two weeks of diarrhea with floating stools is often seen in people suffering from malabsorption, a dysfunction in the GI tract that affects the body's ability to digest and absorb fat and other types of foods.

Increased levels of nutrients in the stool (which have not been absorbed by the GI tract) are supplied to the normal bacteria that live in the gut, which in turn produce more gas. This results in more gas-rich stools that float.

Common Causes:

Dietary changes, diarrhea, and malabsorption can cause floating stools. Most causes are benign and will resolve when the infection ends or the bacteria in the GI tract adjust to the changes in your diet.

Patients with the following diseases may also have stool that floats:

Cystic fibrosis

Gluten-induced enteropathy (sprue or celiac disease)

Idiopathic steatorrhea (fatty stools with no known cause)

Disaccharides deficiency (insufficient amounts of the sugar-digesting enzymes lactase, sucrase, or isomaltase)

Short bowel syndrome

Biliary atresia

Abetalipoproteinemia

-- Go this from New England Journal of Medicine Website...

[bluelotus]

Too bad you can't notify a dietican board or somthing - get her license revoked.