Tastes Like Shit

[Sethomas]

Analytically!

The fibrous pulp that constitutes a stool would have been neutralized for any outstanding flavor tendencies by digestion, I assume. Because low pH is associated with sour taste, I would guess that any residual HCl in the fiber would cause a mildly acrid sour response on the tongue. However, because upwards of 30% of stool mass is actually expelled bowel flora I would suspect that any flavor would be dominated by the characteristics of the organisms living inside of you, the composition of which has the potential to change very rapidly and drastically. It's the respiratory waste of these organisms, particularly e. coli, that are responsible for fecal matter's terrible smell. Human gas waste products, which I think are mostly small-chain alkanes, are not by themselves olfactory reactive (the molecules are too small/simple to have a smell). That is, when you fart and it smells bad, it's not YOUR fart that smells bad, it's the collective farting of the organisms that live inside of you that smells bad.

I felt really special because I once started eating quite a bit less than usual and i naturally started losing weight, and I applied my high school biology understanding to explain the fact that this weight loss saw a DECREASE in bowel movements. I rationalized then that the vast majority of weight loss is explained by CO2 leaving the lungs, which is true. My sister was all kinds of sad when she was bragging about that fact, quizzing me if i knew the answer, and I'd thought it was obvious while she had to be TAUGHT about it in her fancy pre-med college learning.