How the Poop-o-meter works
Two things on every page: what should happen, worked out from what's in the food, and what readers say did happen.
The meter
For foods and drinks, we start from a normal serving (one medium apple, five or six prunes, an 8 oz coffee) and look up what's in it in USDA FoodData Central. Each thing that gets the gut moving earns points, up to a cap:
| What's in it | Points | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Caffeine | 0.3 per mg, up to 30 | Wakes up the colon, fast |
| Coffee itself | +20 | Decaf still works, just less, so it isn't only the caffeine |
| Sorbitol | 5 per g, up to 40 | A sugar alcohol the gut barely absorbs; it pulls water in |
| Excess fructose | 2 per g, up to 25 | Fructose beyond glucose, which the gut absorbs poorly |
| Fiber | 2 per g, up to 25 | Slow: bulks and softens over a day or more |
| Alcohol | 2 per g, up to 30 | Speeds things through |
| Fat | 0.5 per g, up to 10 | A small effect; mostly matters for oils |
YES is 40 points or more. MAYBE is 20 to 39. EVENTUALLY means under 20 but with a decent amount of fiber: no quick effect, but it helps keep you regular over days. NOPE is everything else.
USDA doesn't measure sorbitol, so those figures come from published studies, and fresh fruit varies a lot by variety. Where a number we'd need is missing, we say so rather than guess.
Supplements and medicines are rated from their labels and the evidence about each form and dose, not from food data.
The votes
Anyone can vote on whether it worked for them, then answer a couple of quick questions: how fast, and how it compared to their normal. "Compared to your normal" matters because everyone's gut is different; comparing each person to their own baseline cancels a lot of that out.
One vote per person per question. Results for each question stay hidden until it has 30 answers, so a handful of early votes can't paint a misleading picture. When we quote vote results, we say "voters reported", never "it causes". The people who vote choose themselves, and people with sensitive guts are likely over-represented.
What this isn't
Medical advice. If something's wrong, see when to see a doctor.