Are You Pooping Properly? This Corn Test From A Nutritionist Will Tell You [Viral TikTok Video]

Gut issues are the epidemic of this century. This nutritionist who goes by the name @plantsfirstnutrition on TikTok, has revealed a simple trick to test if you are emptying your bowels properly. The video has drawn varied reactions from viewers, but has surely captured their attention.

Are you emptying your bowels every day? Roslyn Kent, a Canadian nutritional consultant, throws this question at her viewers. “If you’re not doing that, then you’re probably constipated.” she says.

“That’s going to explain all of the bloating, the food sensitivities, the fatigue, the hormone imbalances and some of the other chronic symptoms you’ve been getting that have felt ‘unexplained,’” Kent points out.

Roslyn Kent is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist at Plants First Nutrition. She is also the founder of Plants First Holistic Nutrition that helps women with chronic gut issues. Kent describes her mission thus:

“I help ambitious women struggling with chronic gut health imbalances overcome their symptoms with evidence based, plant based nutrition strategies when conventional medicine has failed them so they can get back to the activities they love!”

 For those who wish to put their gut health to test, she proposes a “transit test”. Measuring gastrointestinal transit (GIT) time can help people identify if they have constipation or not, and there are many different ways to test it. This simple test doesn’t require any additional tools or materials, other than some corn. One can easily do it at home.

The Sweet Corn Test to Test for Constipation

“Eat a half cup of corn at dinner and also have a tablespoon of white sesame seeds stirred in water,” Kent explains her corn test.

“Drink that back at the same meal and see if they show up in the toilet the next morning.”

The Sweet Corn test has been used in children to assess bowel transit time (1). The test is done by having a serving of whole-kernel sweet corn, either fresh, frozen or tinned. The idea is to see how long it takes for the kernels to pass through your intestines. It will appear in your toilet bowl (poo) undigested.  

Why sweet corn? The hull (outer layer) of a corn kernel is made up mostly of cellulose. Cellulose is sort of a rubbery substance and it does not break apart easily when chewed. You could also try the test with a portion of seeds such as sesame, but sweetcorn works best.

How often should you poop? The ideal transit time is less than 24 hours for kids. For adults it can be 30-40 hours. Higher transit time may point to gut issues. It can mean that you need more fiber in your diet.

Kent also shared another test that can reveal your gut health. How much you have to wipe after each bowel movement can provide some clues to your health. If the residue doesn’t seem to end, it means you’re not fully emptying, the 28 year old nutritionist claimed.

She added that the “volume” of your bowel movement will tell you “everything you need to know” about how much waste you’re eliminating.

“We want to be aiming for a high-volume bowel movement every single day,” continued Kent. “You should feel satisfied and complete after your bowel movement.”

Many of her viewers could not digest the implications of the corn test.

“Once a week if I’m lucky, and I do drink water, eat fiber and take vitamins. 😳,” one viewer remarked in reference to their bathroom habits.

“Every day? I would be lucky to go once a week.” another admitted.

Someone else commented in jest: “Just eat a Tim Hortons farmers wrap and a double double and it’ll all come out in max half hour.”

Transit Time and Gut Health Factors

A study published last year in the Advances in Physiology Education Journal by Americal Physiological Society confirmed that anxiety is associated with bowel activity. The study that carried out the corn test in students showed that students who were worried had more frequent bowel movements before they saw corn in their stool and irritable students had longer bowel transit.

According to the researchers of the above study, ”healthy young adults have a broad range of gastrointestinal transit (GIT) time, and reporting a single average value may concern many who have transit time values beyond the average value.”

An older study (2) from 2008 found that both age and gender have to be considered when reference values for gastric, small intestinal, and colonic mean transit times have to be established using methods such as the corn test. 

The gastric, small intestinal, and colonic mean transit times were significantly longer in women. Aging was shown to accelerate gastric and small intestinal transit significantly. In the group of men, the colonic mean transit time was unaffected by age, but middle-aged women had a significantly slower colonic transit than young women.

Kent Roslyn whose TikTok video has amassed more than 1.2 million views, also runs the online course ‘Plant Powered Gut Academy’, which according to her is the only online course you need to repair your microbiome and heal your gut with plants.