How healthy are your stools?

Researchers at Bristol Royal Infirmary have come up with what they describe as a "user-friendly" seven-point scale – "the Bristol stool form scale" – against which you can measure your own stools.

1. Separate hard lumps, like nuts.
2. Sausage-shaped, but lumpy.
3. Like a sausage or snake but with cracks on its surface.
4. Like a sausage or snake, smooth and soft.
5. Soft blobs with clear-cut edges.
6. Fluffy pieces with ragged edges, a mushy stool.
7. Water, no solid pieces.

Your stools are healthy if they fall into categories 3 or 4.