What Turns Your Hamburger Into…Poop?!
An interview with practicing Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist, Dr. Sameer Islam who was standing outside of his practice at the moment The Next Truth interviewed him.
Ridiculous as it might sound to some of you but, ‘poop’ has a history too. No, not this brown smelly stuff that you find after visiting the bathroom but the word itself.
According to Eric Partridge in his excellent book of word origins (Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English), “poop” comes from the Middle English word “poupen” or “popen”, and it originally meant “fart.” The word was based on the sound of a fart.
But what is it that makes us poop and fart this often? Why does it sometimes smell that bad and others times it seems as if it does not have a smell at all? And, how does the steak on our plate or the drinks we drink, being turned into this brown smelly stuff we call ‘poop’?
By the way, did you know that whale poop is used by microorganisms to photosynthesize and produce oxygen?
I am your host Maria Anna van Driel and you’re listening to “The Next Truth; Where Science and Myth Meet” and this week I am speaking with practicing gastroenterologist and hepatologist, Dr. Sameer Islam and take with him an astonishing journey through the sewers of the human body, our intestinal system. And see if we can answer this question, which valuable information does our poop hold about our health?