# What foods produce the least waste? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 10, 2005, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373 "2005-08-10T01:17:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Thin\_Lizzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9a140/32.png) [@Thin\_Lizzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Lizzy)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/1 "2005-08-10T01:17:20Z")
Like, what foods are digested the most and make the least amount of turds? ---
**Author:** ![Ava\_Gina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Ava\_Gina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ava_Gina)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/2 "2005-08-10T01:27:45Z")
Celery. ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Lizzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9a140/32.png) [@Thin\_Lizzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Lizzy)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/3 "2005-08-10T01:29:36Z")
> [@Ava Gina](#): > > Celery. I don’t think so…celerey is mostly water and the rest is fiber, so any part of the celery besides the water is coming out. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/4 "2005-08-10T01:38:39Z")
Ice cream. Mostly fat and sugar, both of which metabolize fairly completely. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/5 "2005-08-10T01:39:46Z")
Didn’t mean metabolize, digest is more correct. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/6 "2005-08-10T01:53:28Z")
One must ask the question why. I would think if one does this to reduce the amount of waste, perhaps to avoid public toilets and the like, it may backfire as causeing problems like constipation. If you aviod fiber you should reduce the quantity of waste. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/7 "2005-08-10T02:56:17Z")
May I suggest naso-gastric tube liquid? That stuff is high in calories, minimal in fiber (if it has any at all), and contains only enough water to keep it fluid. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/8 "2005-08-10T03:36:35Z")
If I understand the question right, the answer is simple, as in simple sugar. You should be able to injest modest amounts of table sugar and have it entirely absorbed, hence zero waste. Keep in mind that a lot of your poop is [bile](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bile), so there still may end up being fecal matter. Icecream isn’t a bad guess, but commercial icecreams will have a lot of fillers, and those fillers are usually indigestable fibres. Non-fat yogurt is loaded with the stuff, but at the moment the name of it escapes me. Foods like icecream are also quite complex so there is the possibility that it won’t all get digested. And with the increased fat, there will be increased bile. Tough question. ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/9 "2005-08-10T04:05:51Z")
I agree with the sugar suggestion. > [@emacknight](#): > > Keep in mind that a lot of your poop is [bile](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bile) Bile may give feces their characteristic color, but I don’t think it makes up any significant amount of mass, percentage wise. I’ve read that bacteria constitute up to 30% of fecal volume or mass (don’t remember which). I can’t believe I typed that. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/10 "2005-08-10T04:19:56Z")
[Are there any foods that are completely dissolved and absorbed by the intestines?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=149292&highlight=astronaut) ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2005, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/11 "2005-08-10T07:08:45Z")
> [@easy e](#): > > Bile may give feces their characteristic color, but I don’t think it makes up any significant amount of mass, percentage wise. I’ve read that bacteria constitute up to 30% of fecal volume or mass (don’t remember which). Bacteria make up about 50% of the dry weight. About 80% of the wet weight is, unsurprisingly , water. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2005, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/12 "2005-08-14T23:13:13Z")
**YMMV** 😉 [**Hobotraveler**](http://www.hobotraveler.com/feces_excrement.shtml) > [@](#): > > **Normally, feces are made up of 75 percent water and 25 percent solid matter. About 30 percent of the solid matter consists of dead bacteria; about 30 percent consists of indigestible food matter such as cellulose; 10 to 20 percent is cholesterol and other fats; 10 to 20 percent is inorganic substances such as calcium phosphate and iron phosphate; and 2 to 3 percent is protein. Cell debris shed from the mucous membrane of the intestinal tract also passes in the waste material, as do bile pigments (bilirubin) and dead leukocytes (white blood cells). The brown colour of feces is dueto the action of bacteria on bilirubin, which is the end product of the breakdown of hemoglobin (red blood cells). The odour of feces is caused by the chemicals indole, skatole, hydrogen sulfide, and mercaptans, which are produced by bacterial action.** Getting back to the subject. According to [**analagoatcompany.com**](http://www.analagoatcompany.com/Earth%20Mother/kefir.htm) The most digestible foods are: [ul][1] an egg [2] Raw milk, not pasteurized or certainly not homogenized. [3] Raw Cheese[/ul] 😛 [sup] **Straight from the chicken and the cow.** [/sup] ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/13 "2005-08-15T02:17:38Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > May I suggest naso-gastric tube liquid? That stuff is high in calories, minimal in fiber (if it has any at all), and contains only enough water to keep it fluid. Not true. Tube feedings are usually caloricly adjusted to the patient’s needs not simply high calories. Also tube feedings do have fiber, as well as a good part of the daily amount of water required for proper hydration. Fiber in our diet isn’t just in the form of celery strings, most is microscopic. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/14 "2005-08-15T06:43:29Z")
Ah wondrous fiber, like microscopic paper towels for colon cleaning. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/15 "2005-08-15T09:09:37Z")
Soup and pudding. That’s what I consumed when my mouth was wired shut. Didn’t go for two weeks! And even then, it wasn’t even 3 inches long. ---
**Author:** ![metj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@metj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metj)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/16 "2005-08-15T13:27:08Z")
IANAMommy, but I have heard that exclusively breastfed babies sometimes only poo once per week because their the milk is almost completely absorbed and there is not much left over. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/17 "2005-08-15T17:50:04Z")
> [@The Controvert](#): > > Ah wondrous fiber, like microscopic paper towels for colon cleaning. That’s why that bowl of super colon blow felt like a goddamn roll of Brawny towels coming out of my ass. It’s a legitimate question for NASA and the air force when they send people up for long duration flights in pressure suits. I have no specifics but I recall reading that SR-71 pilots ate high protien, low fiber meals before flight for this reason. ---
**Author:** ![Milkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@Milkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milkit)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/18 "2005-08-15T22:39:11Z")
I completely agree that animal products are more digestible, but why "raw milk, not pasteurized or certainly not homogenized”? I can maybe see non-pasteurized milk being more digestible but if you don’t homogenize milk you get cream. > [@kniz](#): > > **YMMV** 😉 > > [**Hobotraveler**](http://www.hobotraveler.com/feces_excrement.shtml) > Getting back to the subject. > > According to [**analagoatcompany.com**](http://www.analagoatcompany.com/Earth%20Mother/kefir.htm) The most digestible foods are: > [ul][1] an egg > [2] Raw milk, . > [3] Raw Cheese[/ul] > 😛 [sup] **Straight from the chicken and the cow.** [/sup] ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2005, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-foods-produce-the-least-waste/316373/19 "2005-08-15T22:44:52Z")
> [@metj](#): > > IANAMommy, but I have heard that exclusively breastfed babies sometimes only poo once per week because their the milk is almost completely absorbed and there is not much left over. Boy did you hear wrong! Breast fed babes poo often, they don’t have trouble with constipation. This from many years of cleaning little bums.