Does Your Poop Look Like This? (Signs You’re NOT Healthy)

Berg argues that it's not normal to have a bowel movement only every few days; everyone should have one to two eliminations daily. He sees the root cause of many digestive complaints as the high frequency of eating — especially snacking — which never allows the gut to finish processing one meal before another arrives. He presents intermittent fasting (two meals, no snacking) as therapeutic, giving the system relief. He also cites anecdotal evidence from prolonged fasters who still have bowel movements days into the fast, indicating the body is 'finally getting rid of stuff.' This protocol is positioned as more fundamental than any specific food recommendation.

Berg explains that many cases of 'incomplete digestion' visible in stool actually trace back to low stomach acid, not a primary organ failure. He notes that as we age, we lose acid production. Without adequate acid, the gallbladder won't release bile and the pancreas won't release enzymes, so fat and protein pass through undigested. The result can be foul-smelling, greasy, or fragmented stool. He advises a self-titration protocol: take a little betaine HCl, then each day increase the amount until symptoms abate. This is a do-it-yourself approach that he says targets the root cause rather than just palliating with probiotics alone.

Berg notes that when stool is soft and not well formed (but not frank diarrhea), the most likely cause is a lack of gut microbes, because microbes physically help form the stool. Allergic reactions and pathogens can also cause the body to flush the colon, stripping away good bacteria. His rapid remedy is blackberries blended with kefir or yogurt, which he says 'seemed to resolve it pretty quick.' This is a low-cost, food-based intervention he presents as a first-line response to microbial loss, before reaching for probiotic supplements.

Berg walks through the bile pathway: the liver makes bile, the gallbladder concentrates it, and when you eat, the gallbladder contracts to send bile into the small intestine, where it meets pancreatic enzymes. He explains that a light-colored or gray stool means bile isn't reaching the stool, pointing to a liver or gallbladder obstruction — fatty liver, thickened sludge — sometimes long before you have pain. If stool floats and is light-colored, fat is present, confirming a bile-related malabsorption. When stool is greasy and has a strong odor, the pancreas is failing to secrete enough enzymes; the most likely cause is pancreatic exhaustion from overwork, not immediately cancer. This timeline of visual cues gives people a practical, no-cost early warning system.\n\nHe further connects stool shape to problems higher in the digestive tract: hard pellets mean prolonged transit time because of an issue higher up, while a thin pencil or cigar shape suggests a physical blockage, polyps, or impaction in the colon. These patterns reinforce the idea that the toilet bowl is a daily report card on digestive physiology.

Berg stresses that it's not normal to have a bowel movement only every few days; one to two per day should be the baseline. He states that the biggest problem is cramming so much food into the 'pie hole' that the system never gets a chance to reset. Intermittent fasting — specifically skipping breakfast, avoiding snacks, and eating two meals a day — is described as therapeutic because it gives the digestive system relief.\n\nHe adds that even during extended fasts (three to seven days), people still have bowel movements, though smaller, because the body is finally getting rid of deep-seated material. This reinforces that the digestive tract needs periods without incoming food to fully process and expel waste.