Maintaining gut health is very important for our day to day life. There are many factors that influence our gut transit times – diet, stress, overweightness, gut bacteria and transit times (how long it takes for our food to work its ways through and out into the loo). Too fast or too slow can lead to illness – fatigue, bloating, loss of appetite, painful bum!

The ‘blue muffin test’ is a novel test you can try at home to assess your gut transit time. It has been gaining momentum on social media as a way that you can take matters into your own hands. Traditionally in hospital we would send you for a radiology test that involves swallowing markers and specialist equipment.

In GUT journal this month (BMJ group), the blue muffin has been described and although not validated against standard medical tests, shows promising results.

The test– eat your normal diet leading up to the test, avoid laxatives, eat 2 x muffins containing 0.75g of Royal blue food colouring within 10 minutes and wash down with a drink. Then wait…..and note exactly the time to first blue poo in the toilet.

The authors in GUT report the following results: fast transit <14 hours, normal transit 14-58 hours, slow transit >59 hours. Most people (healthy volunteers) scored 28.7 hours.

Don’t worry if you score >59hours, time to start looking at your stool consistency and ways to speed it up – more fibre, more exercise, more water!