Introduction
Bowel movements can basically take on many different colors. Mostly the basic color is brown. Everything you eat has a particularly strong influence on the color of your bowel movements.
Food with strong colors can cause discoloration of the bowel movement. Medication can also have an influence on the color of the stool. Finally, some colors of the bowel movement can also indicate certain diseases.
The bowel movement can have these colors
The stool can basically take on almost any color that occurs in nature. Normally, the bowel movement is brown, with shades varying between lighter and darker colors. In addition, normal defecation can also take on shades between a rather reddish/orange-brown defecation and a greenish-brown defecation.
The composition of the bowel movement itself often plays an important role in this. For example, the amount of dietary fiber has a strong influence on the consistency and color of the bowel movement. The amount of liquid excreted via the stool can also change the color.
Other food-induced colors of the bowel movements are typically yellowish to reddish tones. Dyes in fruit and vegetables play a major role in this. A greenish or grayish/colorless bowel movement usually indicates an imbalance of the so-called microbiome (i.e. the bacteria in the intestine).
Gastrointestinal germs, such as diarrhoea pathogens, can also cause the bowel movement to turn greenish. Bowel movements can also take on a very dark brown to black color. This can be an indication of bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tractThere are various causes and reasons for yellow bowel movements.
Often, the bowel movement is yellowish-brownish if the person affected is eating particularly large amounts of starch. At first this is not a cause for concern, but if other digestive symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation are added and the color change lasts longer, a doctor should be consulted. Antibiotics can also cause a yellowish discoloration of the stool due to their interference with the intestinal flora.
After stopping the antibiotics, the color of the stool should return to normal. However, yellow stools are not always due to harmless causes. A build-up of bile, as well as liver diseases also lead to a yellowish discoloration of the stool.
The sclerae (the whites of the eyes) and the skin also often turn yellowish, the urine becomes darker, itching (pruritus) occurs, and occasionally abdominal pain occurs. Such a combination of symptoms should be clarified with a doctor. Another type of yellow stool is fatty stool.
This is shiny due to its high fat content and is often particularly foul-smelling. The reason for this is usually a digestive disorder. Due to diseases of the bile and pancreas, fatty food components can no longer be absorbed from the intestines.
This topic might also be of interest to you: Fatty stoolGreen bowel movement is triggered by various factors. Often the cause of green stool is to be found in the diet. Green foods and raw foods play a major role in this.
Vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, broccoli, beans, peas, may cause greenish coloration of the bowel movement due to its many green colorants. Medicines can also cause greenish bowel movements. For example, the intake of iron preparations can cause black to greenish bowel movements.
In addition, laxatives often stain the bowel movement greenish. A similar principle occurs with diarrheal diseases. These can be caused by bacteria or viruses, and rarely also by parasites.
If the chyme is moved too quickly through the gastrointestinal tract, the body cannot absorb as many nutrients as it would otherwise from food. Bile also plays an important role in the green coloration of the bowel movements. The bile contains a breakdown product of the red blood pigment: The green biliverdin.
If this is not processed sufficiently, the stool can turn green. Black stool is a typical symptom of bleeding in the stomach or esophagus. In this case, the blood from the upper gastrointestinal tract (gastrointestinal tract) is digested by the gastric acid in the stomach to such an extent that it turns black.
The digestive product is called hematin.Such a black stool is also called tar stool, because it resembles tar both with its color and usually with its consistency. Tarry stools usually occur in connection with other complaints such as vomiting, nausea, stomach ache and indisposition. Hamrlose causes of black coloration of the stool are foods such as blueberries and blackberries.
Black stools are perfectly normal in newborns. This first bowel movement, also called meconium, is normally green to deep black and is also called child’s pitch black because of its color. Orange defecation is harmless in most cases.
Most often it is caused by ingested food. Typical foods that cause orange coloration of the stool are for example carrots. Red and orange peppers can also cause such discoloration.
After a few days, the symptoms should disappear on their own. Grey stool is characterized by the fact that it has lost its coloring, unlike the healthy color of stool. In some cases, this can be caused by an unbalanced diet with a particularly large number of starchy foods such as potatoes and rice.
However, grey stools are rather rare and should therefore be examined. The coloration of the stool is caused by the contact of the stool with bile. This contains the breakdown products of the red blood pigment haemoglobin.
These color the bowel movement brownish. A discolored, gray stool therefore only occurs if the passage of the food pulp through the intestine is too fast or if there are diseases of the gallbladder. Basically, different colors can occur in the bowel movement.
Above all, this phenomenon occurs when the stool contains components that have not been digested well. These components often acquire their natural color, while the defecation itself is rather brownish in color. Defecation with different colors can also occur if, for example, parasites or fungi are contained in the bowel.
If these are excreted with the stool, they often do not take on the color of the rest of the bowel movement and therefore stand out in color. Occasionally, different colors in the bowel movement are also caused by blood admixtures. Bright red blood indicates a bleeding in the last section of the intestine, as the blood has not been digested until excretion. On the other hand, dark to black (i.e. digested) blood can also be mixed with the bowel movement. In this case, dark admixtures are added to the bowel movement.
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