Would you donate your poop to those in need? While the idea seems a little crazy, people who suffer from debilitating gastrointestinal infections can often be helped by the introduction of a healthy person’s fecal matter into their gut. The bacteria-laced feces, which is typically injected in pill form, can help rebalance the microbiome and jump start a patient’s recovery.
As a result, two stool banks in the U.S. are collecting and analyzing feces in order to turn it into possible treatments.
As it turns out, PETA thinks that vegans have the best poop out there, so much so that it suggested that vegans head out and donate the “gold standard” of fecal transplants.
“Even vegan poop can make the world a better place, and if you’re vegan, PETA wants you to donate yours to someone who may greatly benefit from that gift,” reads the blog post. “Once people beat their serious stomach complaints and experience the health and mood benefits of vegan stool, they’ll surely want to go vegan themselves.”
There’s just one problem: Vegan poop isn’t necessarily the best out there.
Popular Science notes that while OpenBiome (one of the company’s doing all this poop collection) issued a statement thanking for PETA for using its platform to solicit donations, its own research doesn’t indicate that vegan feces is any better than anyone else’s. The relationship between diet and microbial health (which has been connected to everything from metabolism to mood), is complex. At the moment, we don’t know much about how a vegan diet impacts gut health.
Vegan or not, if you’re feeling inspired you can learn more about donating your poop on Open Biome and AdvancingBio’s websites. You might even have found your second job. The Washington Post notes that professional poopers can make up to $13,000 a year.