The truth about poo: we’re doing it wrong

Who knew sitting on the toilet was bad for you? In her best-selling book Charming Bowels, microbiologist Giulia Enders explains how to go to the loo

In my large Italian family, I grew up with the subject of poo, bottoms and constipation readily - and far too frequently - discussed at the dinner table. I'd be about to raise a raviolo to my mouth, only to hear how someone's piles had popped, just that morning.

This doesn't mean I'm anal (sorry) about the subject. It's fascinating away from the lunch table. Late last year, I read that we are pooing all wrong: we should be squatting, not sitting, on a toilet bowl. Then a book called Charming Bowels by Giulia Enders caused something of a storm in its native Germany and I got fully immersed in the subject.