Prof. Emma Allen-Vercoe, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, appeared on CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks to answer a rather delicate question about what’s in our poop.

A listener had asked about the efficiency of human and animal digestive systems and why we seem to create so much poop. Allen-Vercoe responded that most of our pooo is actually water, while the rest is bacteria, and only a small amount is undigested waste

Allen Vercoe is the Canada Research Chair in Human Gut Microbiome Function and Host Interactions. She studies the human gut microbiome and its effects on health and disease.

She has developed potential microbial therapeutics to treat C. difficile infections, as well as a number of chronic illnesses. Earlier this year, she was named to an international research team of scholars studying connections between microbes in the body and cancer.