i have a friend who has long claimed that squatting while pooping is the au natural way to, er, go and that instead of getting a special squat toilet you can get the same effect by squatting on top of upside down paint cans placed in front of a regular toilet. “uh, huh. shooooore. who is going to do that?” i thought. much to my surprise, i ran across the the squatty potty which has a great educational video touting the benefits of squatting and their product which has positive amazon reviews ( lacking, though, in the expected potty humor ). if you need more convincing, the squatty potty site links to medical case studies which confirm that the, “sensation of satisfactory bowel emptying in sitting defecation posture
necessitates excessive expulsive effort compared to the squatting posture.”