The bigger our bowel movements, the healthier we may be.

The risk of low stool weight includes bowel cancer, diverticular disease, appendicitis, various anal diseases— even, perhaps, the healthfulness of breast tissue.

From a study of 23 populations across a dozen countries, a graph of average daily stool weight versus colon cancer incidence.

As you can see, once you get down around a half a pound, 200 grams or so, colon cancer rates really seem to skyrocket.

And once people start dropping quarter pounders colon cancer incidence quadruples.

The link between stool size and colon cancer may be related to transit time, the number of hours it takes for food to go from mouth to anus.

The larger our stool, the quicker the transit time, the easier it is for our intestines to move things along.

People don't realize you can have daily bowl movements and still be effectively constipated.

You can be regular, but five days late.

What you're flushing today you may have eaten last week.

If you want to test it for yourself, all you need to do is eat a big bowl of beets and see when things turn pretty in pink.

And ideally it should be down in the 24 to 36 hour range to reach that half-pound target.