We don’t blame you if the time period “ghost poops” throws you for a loop. Relying in your affinity for spooky season, a phantom-themed lavatory expertise could or could not sound like a fright. However right here’s the twist: Ghost poops aren’t something to be fearful of in any respect—and so they truly spell excellent news in your digestive well being.

Actually, relating to brag-worthy rest room habits, these elusive stools are powerful to beat.

“It’s the healthiest bowel motion, actually, in lots of methods,” Kate Scarlata, MPH, RDN, a Boston-based registered dietitian, intestine well being professional and cohost of The Intestine Well being podcast, tells SELF. Mainly, it may possibly sign some fairly nice issues about your food regimen, hydration, and general intestine well being.

For these of you questioning, Wait, what the hell is a ghost poop? there are a number of definitions floating round on the market. Whereas it’s not an official medical time period, the ghost poop usually refers to stool that appears to fade into the bathroom abyss with out flushing and go away zero residue if you wipe. (So sure, we get how they may very well be a little spooky.)

There are a couple of traits that make feces behave this manner, Scarlata explains. First off, the explanation ghost poops disappear down the bathroom is as a result of they’re heavy. Not like floating stools, which can be buoyant on account of extra fuel, or malabsorption of carbs or fat, ghost poops are filled with fiber, which provides them a heft that helps them sink and vanish, Scarlata explains. Then, the truth that ghost poops are well-formed means they’ve mixture of water content material: They’re not too free (as is the case with diarrhea) or conversely, too exhausting (such as you’d discover with constipation), Scarlata says.

Lastly, the actual fact they slip proper out of you means your sphincter and intestine muscle mass are completely coordinated to push poop out in a single fell swoop, gastroenterologist Austin L. Chiang, MD, MPH, writer of Intestine: An Proprietor’s Information, tells SELF. The dearth of residue additionally factors again to steadiness of fluids and fats in your poops, since stool with an excessive amount of water or malabsorbed fat or might be “messy” and “mashed-potato-like,” Scarlata says.

In sum, having a ghost poop is “ signal for intestine well being,” Scarlata says. However you shouldn’t essentially panic in case your stuff comes out in a different way. Actually, most of us most likely aren’t producing ghost poops on the reg, says Dr. Chiang, who surmises that they’re “most likely extra uncommon than regular.”

Past regular fluctuations in poop habits, “all of us can have totally different sorts of poops at some point to the following,” Scarlata says Many elements, together with variances in food regimen, hydration, and stress ranges, can influence what we see (or don’t see) in the bathroom—and a few of us simply aren’t liable to ghost poops on account of particular person variations in our intestine microbiomes. And that’s okay. “Not experiencing a ghost poop doesn’t imply you’re unhealthy,” Scarlata says.

That stated, taking a second to test in along with your BMs could be a good likelihood to replicate in your general food regimen and whether or not you’re getting sufficient vital vitamins.