Some people are reputed to have drunk his or her own urine as a cleanser. That is what prompted this question but it is not important if it is true or not. What if you ate your own feces after you defecated? Let us assume that it consumption starts within a minute of the defecation act. Would you be immune to the bacteria in the feces going in the other end? Would it still have any nutritional value?
Never was a problem in my family.
(sorry - couldn’t resist)
This cries out for an experiment. I’ll be in the control group that doen’t eat feces. You can be in the trial group that does eat feces. Once you have stopped throwing up and have been released from the hospital, let me know how it went.
Fecal coliform bacteria is not a fun thing to have make you sick. Cholera and dysentery are two of the non fun things associated with injesting things in contact with human feces. I know you are asking if you are safe from your own, but I really don’t think that there is enough benefit, if any, to out weigh the risks.
One wonders at the necessity of the bolded clause. Can one eat feces BEFORE the defecation? Is it, in fact, shit until it’s been shat? A scatalogical koan, that.
BTW, In “And The Band Played On,” the author dicusses the rise of Hepatitis as the consequences of oral-anal sex (aka “rimming”) and the corresponding inevitable ingestion of fecal matter. Crap is not good for you. I doubt it matters if it’s your own.
Shit yes!
NO IT DOESN’T
I seem to recall reading that eating your own is safer than eating someone else’s, but still…
I mean, it is waste matter, after all. There’s a reason your body’s getting rid of it. Same thing goes for urine.
And urine is sterile, so drinking it doesn’t relate to eating crap, at all.
Urine has no bacteria, but it’s still waste matter. Uric acid is not good stuff.
The Master addresses urine-drinking here, for the interested.
Well, the QUESTION makes me sick. Does that count? xo C.
E coli lives in your intestines. Where it does whatever e coli does.
But to put it in your stomach…
Not a very good idea.
Some mammals do this: I have seen Dogs and rabbits do it with no apparent ill effects except grossing me the hell out out. Pigs do too and actually roll around in it (like dogs will do it with deer poop). Guinea Pigs do too.
can’t belive he contributed to this thread
Pigs don’t…they roll in mud. They do it to keep cool. They are actually meticulously clean animals.
Dogs do, to hide their scent.
rabbits and guinea pigs eat their own feces because (gross oversimplification)their digestive tract is too short to properly digest their food on the first pass; by the second time around, the bacteria will have broken down the cellulose etc sufficiently for the animal to absorb more nutrient from the food. Thing is… they’re not omnivorous like us, so the range of bacteria that will be present in the feces is limited. Plus of course they have evolved a digestive system that can cope with doing it.
Fecal bacteria in the top end of the digestive system is a bad idea for humans; I’m not sure though, whether you Shagnasty would be able to eat his/her own poop after first cooking (maybe pan-frying?) it to destroy the bacteria. The toxins (which may not be destroyed by heating) might still be a serious problem.
Now that conjured the worst mental image I’ve had float through my consciousness in a long time.
Believe me, pigs will roll around in mud saturated with shit with abandon in an enclosed pig area. Pigs may be naturally clean (I have never been convinced of this having a pet pig and visiting tens of pig farms) but they don’t seem to mind or have any ill effects from it.
Kinda adds a whole new dimension to the erstwhile euphamistic “steamer”.
I’ll volunteer for the control group too.
The wolves in artic lands will fight over your ‘leavings’ and extract the last bit of nourishment from them.