Why Toilet Paper Wasn’t a Necessity for Most of Human History — and How Greed and Processed Foods Changed Everything

The very first human to use something resembling toilet paper is unknown — historical records simply don’t go back far enough to identify an individual. However, we can trace the earliest documented use of toilet paper to China during the Tang Dynasty (around 600s AD), with more formal production recorded in the 14th century during the Ming Dynasty.

A Chinese scholar, Yen Chih-Thui, wrote that he would not use paper containing quotations from the classics to wipe himself, implying that people were already using paper for hygiene.

In 1393, records show that the Chinese imperial family ordered 720,000 sheets of specially made toilet paper. Each sheet measured about 2 feet by 3 feet.

Toilet paper as we know it — commercially packaged on rolls — wasn’t invented until 1857, by Joseph Gayetty in the United States. His “medicated paper” was sold in flat sheets and infused with aloe.

For most of human history, toilet paper did not exist — nor was it necessary. This fact, while surprising to many today, reflects not a lack of hygiene or development, but rather a deeper reality about human health, diet, and digestion. The relative cleanliness and manageability of our ancestors’ bowel…