You don’t know sheer panic until you’re out in a public place when suddenly goosebumps creep in to accompany a gurgling that settles into the bottom of your gut. You feel the urgency of Nature’s call and sweat appears on your brow when you realize you don’t know the location of the nearest washroom.

In some twisted cosmic joke, these situations are actually more likely to happen when you’re travelling in a foreign country and the local public washrooms (or global Tim Horton’s locations) are still unfamiliar. Afar, the water is different, the food is prepared differently and with different spices, and the bacterial colonies are different from those you’ve acclimated to back home.

But the real punchline though is waddling into a public bathroom to find a hole in the ground. If you’re lucky, it’s a ceramic hole with a water seal that flushes. Seriously?!

Squat toilets are very common in many Asian countries (China, Thailand and Japan), North Africa and other rural or developing countries. They’ve been around for centuries, and they are designed to accommodate how humans have evolved to go number two.

While it may seem awfully rudimentary, it’s actually far ahead of the customary porcelain throne we’ve become accustomed to here in the Western world.

The secret to its success is in the mechanics of our plumbing.

There is a muscle that creates a bend at the end of your colon that also helps to keep things in place. Picture a garden hose that has been bent around the leg of your patio chair, the water flow stops. Same idea.

So, whether we’re sitting down for a meal or sitting at our desk at work, we can count on choice muscles to work in our favour.

Because, as it turns out, sitting is not the ideal position to get the job done — squatting is.

When you’re squatted down low, this positioning actually releases the puborectalis muscle allowing your colon to open up and things to flow smoothly. In fact, there was a study published in Digestive Diseases and Sciences, that found that participants took just 1/3 of the time squatting compared to being seated upright.

So, don’t shy away from these unfamiliar toilets in foreign places. Not only is there a compelling case for squatting, but these toilets are also more inexpensive and use less water (if any at all). They can also help those suffering from constipation and reduce the risk of complications (like hemorrhoids).

You have to eliminate waste from your body – it’s a process that’s integral to the maintenance of good health and prevention of disease. I even suggest buying those nifty stools that fit your western toilet to simulate the squatting position at home to see what you’ve been missing out on for all these years.