# Poop changing color based on diet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088 "2012-04-17T22:32:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/21 "2012-04-18T17:35:49Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > Try drinking a few blue colored drinks. Or eat some Oreo cookies. That’s kind of a disturbing user name/post combo. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/22 "2012-04-18T17:44:28Z")
I’ve had dark green poo for months now because of the iron supplement I’m taking (I apparently developed anemia during my severe infection at the beginning of the year). ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/23 "2012-04-18T18:12:14Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > As others noted, I’ve had green poop after drinking grape flavored drinks. I can tell you first hand it occurs. And no, it’s not brown with a green tinge. It’s green like the Jolly Green Giant. Or Bruce Banner on a bad day. Or Mr. Spock’s blood. That happened to me once. It took all my self-control to not summon my husband to the bathroom with a camera. Green like a damn crayon. 😛 It almost looked Photoshopped, except that I was standing right there staring at my own turd. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/24 "2012-04-18T18:21:15Z")
I’m a “shades of brown” guy - except during the colonoscopy prep. The exiting material was bright green. I swear it glowed in the dark. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/25 "2012-04-18T18:22:04Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Apparently not everyone has [that result from beets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeturia). I love beets but haven’t noticed an effect in feces, and only pinkish in urine. Fascinating. I’m slightly anemic and have pernicious anemia (that is, a B-12 deficiency), and beets definitely show up… afterwards, if you know what I’m saying. I had no idea it was related! I’m special! ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/26 "2012-04-19T01:37:39Z")
My poop changes color frequently depending on what I’m eating. When I ate borscht for 2 meals a day for 3 days my poop was red. Recently I ate a pint of strawberries a day for 3 days and my poop was red again. Pepto Bismal turns it black and tarry (an unfortunate coincidence when you’re suffering severe intestinal distress from an antibiotic allergy and one of the possible side effects is internal bleeding). Froot Loops (which I rarely eat) turns it bright green. ---
**Author:** ![dngnb8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@dngnb8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dngnb8)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/27 "2012-04-19T01:50:50Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Someone told me that her poop changes color drastically based on her diet. If she eats a lot of watermelon for two days, then her poop turns pink. If she eats a lot of spinach or kale or collard greens or whatever, then it’s green. If she eats a lot of blueberries, then it’s blue or purple. > > I was stunned. I’ve never heard of this and I told her that there had to be something wrong with her digestive system that so much of her food seemed to be passing through undigested, but she said that it’s happened her whole life and she thought there was no reason to talk to a doctor about it. > > Is this normal? It’s not a sign of some problem? Obtain yourself a bunch of red beets. Roast them for 60 minutes. Dice and eat about 4 beets. Your poop and pee will be reddish purple ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/28 "2012-04-19T01:51:12Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > Try drinking a few blue colored drinks. Or eat some Oreo cookies. Down a large diet Ocean Water at Sonic, and you’ll crap various shades of green for a couple days. Freaked me right out the first time, but the second time, I put 2 and 2 together and wasn’t so worried. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/29 "2012-04-19T02:15:04Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I’ve had dark green poo for months now because of the iron supplement I’m taking (I apparently developed anemia during my severe infection at the beginning of the year). Lots of iron turns mine almost black. Blueberries have a similar effect but happily, blueberries don’t have the other affects of iron. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/30 "2012-04-19T02:28:50Z")
Well, since we’re sharing: mine used to not change much. Then it started doing the green thing after drinking grape soda. Now it changes all the time. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/31 "2012-04-19T02:42:20Z")
So how many people went out and bought Grape Soda (or something else mentioned above) just to try it out? ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/32 "2012-04-19T02:44:32Z")
When I was a kid, the whole neighborhood gang chowed down on a boat load of green apples. Everyone’s poop (by report, I only saw mine) was green the next day. ---
**Author:** ![bubba\_jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@bubba\_jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubba_jr)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/33 "2012-04-19T04:25:13Z")
Never had green poo, at least since I’ve been wiping my own butt. A few days of Red Chile, its red, and if it was a big pot and that was the only thing I ate for a few days, its really red, only slightly darker than the chile itself and usually not too far off on consistency. If I buy a few cans of mixed nuts, especially almonds, it turns very very light tan, perfect desert camo color. Iron, like eating something made with tomatoes after being left in a cast iron pan overnight(miserable week, never do that again). Jet black, and wipes as charcoal grey, and its STICKY. My big dog, if she eats a bone or 2 (real bones), she lays out some yard dumplings that are almost pure white. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/34 "2012-04-19T04:39:27Z")
That reminds me. At one place I worked the rotating schedules for lunch and supper would align about every 6 weeks and the patients would get spinach casserole for lunch and beets for supper. Mix colour producing food, gas and fibre with a bunch of mostly incontinent and constipated patients, all on interesting meds… not fun. I had a unique schedule that meant I was the only one who consistantly worked that day and the day after. Urgh. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/35 "2012-04-19T19:57:15Z")
> [@bubba\_jr](#): > > …My big dog, if she eats a bone or 2 (real bones), she lays out some yard dumplings that are almost pure white. Ha! Mr. Shoe’s childhood beagle once ate some newspaper. (It may have been used to wrap food, but then again, beagles can out-eat goats.) Anyway, her crap … was _legible._ 😛 ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/36 "2012-04-20T07:59:15Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Ha! Mr. Shoe’s childhood beagle once ate some newspaper. (It may have been used to wrap food, but then again, beagles can out-eat goats.) Anyway, her crap … was _legible._ 😛 If we’re talking about dogs, my dog got into a bag of nuts once, and left Snickers bars all over the place the next day. She must have really eaten a lot, she went about 5 times, when she normally goes twice a day. ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/37 "2012-04-20T10:10:14Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I didn’t say it never changes. I said it was always some shade of brown. I’ve never had pink, blue, or green poop. Mine varies in shade, but it’s almost always brown. I’ve pooped black poop because of meds I was on. > [@ToeJam](#): > > So how many people went out and bought Grape Soda (or something else mentioned above) just to try it out? I drank gallons of that stuff when I was in Canada and didn’t notice anything strange about my bowel or bladder evacuations ---
**Author:** ![ethelbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ethelbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethelbert)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2012, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088/38 "2012-04-21T15:47:23Z")
Licorice! Green & sometimes black poop. Very entertaining, especially if you like licorice. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poop-changing-color-based-on-diet/619088.md?page=1)