What Color is Your Poop?

It may not be the best topic of conversation at the dinner table, but having a good poop is essential to your health. Pooping is the final stage of digestion when your body has taken all the fluids and nutrients it needs and excretes the waste. What color your poop is actually says a lot about your health and what's going on inside your gastrointestinal tract.

Poop color: White or clay

If your poop is white or clay, it could be one of two things. First, your poop could be missing bile pigment. Bile is produced by your liver and stored in your gall bladder to help digest lipids/fats. So there could be an issue with your gall bladder, liver, or one of the ducts that extend from them to your small intestine. Second, your clay or white color poop could simply be the result of taking barium, a liquid ingested for the purpose of certain diagnostic tests.

Poop color: Red

A red poop can also have more than one meaning. The more urgent cause would be the presence of fresh blood in your poop. This could the result of bleeding from your lower GI tract or a ruptured hemorrhoid in the rectum or anal canal and should be reported to your doctor right away. The less serious cause could be an excess ingestion of red colored foods, especially beets.

Poop color: Black

Black poop can have several causes. The most serious cause would be being bleeding in your upper GI tract (such as the small intestine or ascending colon.) Because the blood is not fresh and close to the anal canal, it has already dried and hardened into a blackish hue. A black poop can also be the result of an excess of iron in your body. This usually happens when taking an iron supplement. Finally, a black poop can mean your diet is very high in dark green vegetables (spinach) or red meat. If you do not take iron pills or eat a lot of red meat and dark green veggies, tell your doctor about your black poop.

Poop color: Orange or green

Most likely, a green or orange poop means you have an intestinal infection and you should call your doctor to find out what type of infection you may have.

So what does a normal poop look like?

Your poop should be a medium brown color for adults and yellow for infants. It should be soft, semisolid, and moist and not hard and dry. A normal poop is also about 1 inch in diameter. It is normal to see some undigested food pieces in your poop, but you should see your doctor if find any of the following in your poop: pus, parasites, or blood.