If you're like most Americans, you're pooping wrong.
When you're standing, the rectal baffles are fully extended; when you're squatting, they're fully retracted. When you're sitting, they're open about halfway. Feces can pass through, but impeded. That's why pooping can be such a struggle.
Squatting leads to full, timely, and stress-free elimination, and helps relieve hemorrhoids. But squatting takes a strong pair of legs, sitting is more comfortable, and our infrastructure is clearly biased -- even if you wanted to squat, the toilets we've got don't make it easy.
Some historical perspective illustrates that, as usual, the Victorians and globalization are to blame:
Examples of close-stools and privies designed for sitting have been found as far back as the Roman and Sumerian civilizations. To have a sitter, all you need is the money to build one and a place to put it; still, since real estate has always been precious and holes have always been cheaper than chairs with holes, sitting facilities were historically more of a luxury than a standard convenience. We can blame the Victorians for creating a social requirement that all households dedicate both the space and money to a sitting-based pooping infrastructure.
Until the beginning of the twenty-first century, the western shores of England were the last frontier of proper pooping. The further east of that line one traveled, the greater the likelihood of coming across squatting-based facilities. But the ratio of squatters to sitters has dramatically declined as globalization has spread Western facilities wherever tourists and businessmen travel. Consequently, Americans are much less likely to return from Eastern countries with horror stories of primitive toilets; Easterners are, however, much more likely now to tell horror stories of colon disease.
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Quotes are from Dave Praeger's Poop Culture. This is the second post in the Poop Mondays series.
