No foods should inherently cause bloody bowel movements. For example, the plant compound that gives beets their color, betalain, may resist digestion and dye stool pinkish-red. Summaryįood dyes and certain components of other foods can turn stool red, making it appear bloody.
#Digested blood in baby stool skin
Therefore, you may very well see fragments of tomato or red pepper skin in the toilet after a bowel movement ( 9). Kale and spinach are common culprits of green poop, for example. This can happen with any colored fruit or vegetable. Whether the skin of peppers is floating in the toilet or wrapped in the stool, it can be concerning to see that red color in the toilet bowl. So the especially fibrous skin of vegetables can sometimes appear in stool. Ironically, a diet high in insoluble fiber - the type of fiber found in red peppers and tomatoes - can have an almost laxative effect on the bowels ( 8). However, anything that speeds up the digestion system means that there is less time to actually digest and break down food. So although fiber doesn’t get digested and absorbed like other foods, it’s still partially broken down before being passed ( 7). Red peppers, along with tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables, are fibrous.įiber resists digestion and instead feeds the good bacteria in the large intestine. Watermelon is also high in lycopene and has the potential to turn stool red, according to an older study ( 6).
This amount of lycopene found in a tomato likely won’t change the color of stool, but drinking large amounts of tomato juice, enjoying a bowl of tomato soup, or eating heaps of fresh pico de gallo may be enough to turn stool red. Like betalain, the body’s ability to metabolize lycopene can vary, and the pigment can remain intact until it exits the body ( 5). Tomatoes get their color from a phytonutrient called lycopene, a member of the carotenoid family. Red 40 is the most common red food dye in the United States ( 4).Ĭhanges in stool color from these artificial colors or natural colors (like betalains or lycopene) should subside after a few days. Jell-O and red food dyeĪrtificial dyes found in candies, sugary cereals, chips, and Jell-O can also dye poop. This phenomenon is known as beeturia, and it’s estimated that 10–14% of people may experience it ( 3). Overall, stool leans a little closer on the acidic side and, if beets do alter your stool, it tends to appear more pink, red, or maroon ( 2).īeets can also change the color of your urine. In acidic environments, betalain appears to be a more vibrant red, while in alkaline (basic) environments, betalain appears as a blue or purple hue ( 2). There’s a good chance some of those pigment molecules make it to the end of the digestive tract relatively unchanged ( 2).Īcidity levels may influence the final color of the stool. Betalains belong to the anthocyanin family, and blueberries and cranberries contain them, too ( 2).īetalains aren’t consistently digested or absorbed, and how well your body breaks them down can depend on several factors, including diet. Beetsīeets get their rich, ruby color from betalains, a type of plant pigments or phytonutrients. The following foods may give stool a red appearance. In addition, partially undigested red foods may cause stools to look bloody. Filemon, MS, RDN, CLT, a gut health and anti-inflammatory specialist, told Healthline. “Foods that cause your stool to look bloody or tarry black include red beets, cranberries, blueberries, red food coloring, and processed foods that contain food coloring,” Johane M. So if your diet includes large amounts of red foods, and that red pigment isn’t broken down all the way, that can change the color of poop. undigested food components (carbohydrates, fats, proteins).bile (a digestive fluid released by the gallbladder).
Stool mainly consists of three components ( 1): How, you ask? Because what goes in, must come out. Some foods have the ability to turn stool red.
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