Green Poop: The Implications Of Food Dye On Poop Color
Editor's note: here's the short answer -- blue food coloring turns your poop green. Keep reading to find out more, and then peruse the many, many comments for corroboration.
Since my freshman year in college (a small liberal arts college in
northern Vermont), I've been fascinated with the correlation between the ingestion of
food-coloring and the color of the poop produced. Lest you think I'm fabricating, here's the background:
The year was 1996. I was a biochem major at St. Michael's College in Winooski, Vermont.
I had consumed copious quantities of Purplesaurus Rex
Kool-aid in a one night time frame. A few hours later, I pooped. It was
green. Bright green. I was fascinated, and called as many of my
floor-mates as would come into the stall to marvel at the miracle of the
"not brown, not bloody shit".
 |
I was a bit of a celeb for a while, until others replicated my
"experiment". Similar results ensued, with me being notified of each event
via e-mail. So, a craze started.
As the progenitor of the new species of poo, I was caught in the middle. Research spread far and wide; of
a campus of 2700 students, I was receiving up to 45 e-mails a day from
poopexplorers.
Anyway, enough drivel. Here's the science:
The dye used in purplesaurus Rex is FDA Blue #5, and dye-lake
red. Turns out that when metabolized in sufficient quantity, the blue dye combines
with bile, and forms a brilliant green. The red, absorbing at a 595nm
spectrum, is harmlessly eliminated.
What matters is quantity. I consumed 6
liters of the Kool-aid in the night in question (sans alcohol, that comes
later). I set up a study in the dorm, with people consuming anywhere from
(1) 250mL glass of the stuff (approximately (1) 8oz glass) to the maximum tested
so far, 6L. The experiment was structured on a single-blind study (won't get FDA
approval, but sufficient), with only myself knowing what each was consuming.
How did the experiment come into being, you might ask? Well, I campaigned for 24 "volunteers"
(the first consuming 1 glass, the last consuming 24 glasses). How did they
not know what they were drinking? Well, since it was only single-blind,
they essentially did -- though all were required to drink 6L of fluid total,
and ordered not to defecate at all in the 6 hours of the experiment.
Example: Subject 1 received 250mL of the subjected test substance, and
5.75L of water. Subject 2 received 500mL of the stuff and 5.5L of water.
Everyone was agreeable at first, but soon dissention reigned prime. But order
was maintained. After 6 hours, orders were given to poop, supervised (more or less).
Since I had unrestricted access to the chem and bio labs, samples of each
"extrusion" were taken, in the amount of 2g.
The results were heartening. I plan on getting a PhD (which, in this instance would probably mean, "PUSH
HARDER, DUMMY!") on this someday, so I won't post my final data, just enough
to give an idea:
- Subject 1: 250mL Purplesaurus Rex with 5750mL water:
Stool, firm and brown. Spectrophotometer reading: normal.
Stool, firm(ish) and green(ish). Spec reading 550nm (definitely Green...just not GREEN)
Stool, Firm(ish) and
Green, resplendent of original test subject (me). Spec reading, 535nm. Definition of GREEN confirmed.
Further experiments considered fruit punch (mostly synthetic, only 2.5%
fruit juice), Hi-C of various persuasions, and various and sundry other
store-bought concoctions.
If you're interested in my results, let me know...I'll gladly share them for
the good of society.
-- Dave J
On May 27 2003, PoopReport.com received this email. Dave J, the author of the above piece, was so happy that he wanted this added to his story as proof that writing for PoopReport can improve people's lives. |
dear poopreport,
i know you may find this hard to believe, but you just eased my mind tremendously about our daughter's "poop situation." beginning yesterday about 5p.m. our daughter began having bright green dirty diapers. she has had four in a 24 hour period and i (being an over paranoid mom) have contacted everyone i know, including our pediatrician, and no one had any answers other than it will probably go away. that response just does not cut it with me. i had to have answers. i have been on-line non-stop trying to dig up a possible answer. i told our doctor that the only new food or drink she had consumed was "purple kool-aid" and lots of it. he told me that purple kool aid would not produce green stool. after reading your article i realize it can. thank you soooo much. after hours of searching and worrying, i am off to bed.
-- grateful mom
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1586 Comments on "Green Poop: The Implications Of Food Dye On Poop Color"
Happens to my kids all the time..lol
i don't flush the toliet
Three cans on Anheuser Busch "tilt" (blue can) in the evening, greenish-blue poop the next late morning. Thought I ate a "Smurf" in my sleep.
Grape Crush soda... YUP!!! Green Poo!!
Thank you for this site.... I was a little worried this morning after my morning bathroom trip. I had a really loose stool after overeating more than likely but to my shock it was St Patty's Day in the bowl. Not slightly green but GREEN.
I have had greenish stools after eating spinach or other greens but this was different. Enough to make me check the net.
The culprit... a 32 Blue Rasyberry Slurpee kind of thing from a gas station! It was good going down and now that I am not concerned kind of fun coming out ;)
thanks and I think I might buy my girlfriend one just to see her shock.
This morning I produced a bright green, reasonably firm stool. This caused mild alarm, although because it wasn't a hateful, runny diarrhea I wasn't too worried. Which got me to thinking: What have I eaten in the last 24 hours? Pizza, chicken salad, nothing unusual. Oh, but wait! Wife brought home a large bottle of purple (Welch's) grape soda. I guzzled a goodly amount (sorry, no specific measures were taken). And I got to thinking, perhaps the digestive process added or subtracted color to produce the, um, green effect. To the Goodle we go, and ... Shazam!
Thank you, poop report, for giving us the straight poop.
-- Green with relief
I went to Cedar Point yesterday and succumbed to my hankering for a blue raspberry Sno-Cone. Thank you Dave J for posting this article on the poopreport. It is comforting to know something is not wrong with me. It makes me giggle thinking about all the people I saw yesterday eating the blue raspberry Sno-Cones who also are probably surprised with their bright green poo today.
even happened with a blue velvet cupcake. yikes.
It's good to know nothings wrong with me!
I had the greenn poop happen to me this morning too. Well I thought maybe I was sick on the inside and didn't know it. So I thoght I will check on ask.com and maybe get some answers and I did this report helped tremendously!!! I ate cake with blue and green icing last night and there is the food coloring that made my poop bright green. At least I know now what it could be and I'm for sure cuz I was fine before this crazy shit!!! Lol. Thank you, paty
has anyone have had the green color bleed from the poop into the water? almost like green paint dropped in.
I had some superman icecream yesterday. along with some red koolaid and i think this may be the culprit but ive had some intestinal issues in the past.
Yesterday I had a blue frosting cupcake, this morning my poop was GREEN... I was like what caused it and you just answered it. the Food Coloring. Thank you.
I remember that when I was a kid whenever I ate pickle flavored potato chips my shit would always turn a nasty green color. Couldnt tell you now, though.
How many times do I have to flush before you go away?
Yes, indeedy, J Castle, a day or a few days after you lay off the black vodka (!), you will poop brown again--unless, of course, you ingest something else with strong coloring in it. I wonder what your vodka would produce if you had beets as part of the next meal. If you try that, let us know.
I wonder if mine was the neon worms (I love the blue/red ones). I didn't have that many but it's happened the last few times I ate them. Glad to know I'm not abnormal.
lol all I did was eat a cookie cake with blue icing on it. Thanks so much for this. ahah I was like what the crap, this is green!! What's wrong with me!? Good to know the answer is nothing.
Blue Hawaiian Cocktails :)
Tasted great on a hot summer's eve, but caused some concern the next morn.
Ive been eating giant eagle's value brand of twizzlers...and only the blue and green kinds... and they have been on super sale.. so ive eaten "alot." And well to say the least ive been shittin bricks thinking something was horribly wrong. Its a classic neon tennis ball green. But now its all starting to make sense. Thanks doc poo
Eight 16 oz. bottles of blue Gaterade in two days = GREEN POO! and runny at that :(
My 3 year old son just got off the toilet and said "my poop is green!" I had to look. It was actually half brown/half green. I thought for a minute about what he had eaten yesterday. Then I remembered the blue ice cream he had last night! This website confirmed my suspicion. Thank you!
Two words: Twizzlers licorice!!!!!
Green tea also makes you poop green. The weired thing is that i've drank green tea before, but it's been recently that i've been pooping green. If i poop green tomorrow, it must surely be the tea.
09/20/2011. Drank a bunch of 'purple' flavored store-brand beverage powder over the weekend.
Produced Lime to British-Racing tones of green. Scared the, well, that, out of me. Suspected the purple drank, but wondering why it would be green and not purple. Googled, found this page, feel alot better.
Thanks.
Awesome! Vacationed for 8 days at Disney World and after day 3 had some crazy green poo! I freaked out and even called my doctor and they told me it was probably something I ate. I guessed it was the Mexican food at Epcot. Poo turned brown again. Then, just for fun, I went and ate more Mexican food at Epcot to test my theory...and I was right! More green poo! Turns out it was the blue corn chips they serve at the Cantina. :) lol!
Been drinking extra concentrated green cordial. As after my tooth extraction was the only sweet thing I was allowed and to my surprise glowing green poopie . Thanks for giving me piece of mind
Oh man, so I've had stomach issues for a while (gluten intolerant) and when I pooped this morning, I about shit.. oh wait. It was bright green with hints of blue. Thought I had a bacterial infection or something, but then I realized something: those damned orange and black Halloween tortilla chips last night. Yup. After reading all the other comments/articles on this website, I breathed a deep sigh of relief. I rarely eat anything with food coloring in it, so you can imagine my surprise. Glad to know we all have greenish blue poos from time to time.
Lots of strawberry soda turned my poop green..atleast thats what i hope it is lol.
So glad this thread lasted up into the 2011's. Bought this vanilla frosting which was probably drenched with food colorings to give it the color of black (Halloween cake) and my stool was bright St. Patrick's Day grass green and hard. I never seen poop such a color. It was a pretty green.
Must be new food coloring dyes they are using in the past decade, because I've ate blue stuff before. Love blue raspberry pops since I was a child in the 60's and I never seen stool bright green before. Pretty green ... not diarrhea green.
Just an FYI that Big Y +H2O Drink Mix in Grape does the same, as I have been pooping green now for days on end. One half packet dissolved in 32 oz., and I drink about 32-64 oz. of this per day. Thanks for this site, I am relieved! :)
also if you eat fruity cereals like trix and captain crunch oops all berries turn it a blueish green
Yummy orange and black tortilla chips=green poop.
I was initially freaked our when I saw green poop in the toilet bowel,
but after this website I remembered I had three bottles of fierce grape
gatorade. Also red velvet cake turned my poop streaked red color before.
Blue icing on cupcakes, made wiping quiet worriesome. Glad to know everyone I Fed them to will go through the same thing >:)
Thank you for your post!! I just went and was concerned when it was such an extraordinary green! Almost beautiful! So I started thinking of what I ate and thought of nothing unusual... that is until I remembered the cake I made yesterday, with more blue food coloring in the icing than I have ever put before! Now I know and thank you!!
I was worried this morning when I went to the bathroom, which prompted me to research to make sure everything was okay. So yeah PURPLE FANTA is definitely the culprit!! :-)
Thanks for the article. I ate Captain Crunch "Oops All Berries" last night and found a brown/green #2 mix that had me perplexed at first and ready to call the doctor thinking I had some signs of cancer. I feel a lot better now.
Drank three 24oz cans of Grape flavored Four Loko last night, and this morning my poop was brilliantly green.
I don't recommend this though, because that particular beverage is 12% alcohol and after 72oz of it I blacked out and peed the bed. Not the smartest thing I've ever done, but not the dumbest either. Life goes on....luckily.
Mostly I poop blood and Vaseline.
Thank you so much for this! I could hug you! ({}) I went to the movies last night and had a Blue Raspberry ICEE. I'm fairly health conscientious so I usually don't bother with the concession stand at the movies and opt to bring my own decidedly healthier options. I gave in and had the ICEE. Anyway, fast-forward to 10am the next day and I go to the bathroom right before yoga and there it was, neon green poop! I almost screamed but held it in as not to frightened anyone who might be within earshot. All through class and most of today, I reviewed my food intake of the previous day and just couldn't figure it out until I did research and came across you article here. All I knew was I felt fine, I wasn't sick and hadn't eaten anything that color or so I thought. Whew! What a sigh of relief! Thanks again!
I SHITTTED GREEN TODAY!! I HAD TO SEARCH IT UP!! And in relief found this amazing green poop post! Guess I'm not alone. So it's the food coloring! I happened to eat 4 bowls of captain crunch cereal which had blueberry's inside it, due to my brother mixing shit up, I was hungry so I just ate it, and kept eating 'cause it tasted good.
Thanks for the site, really brings me peace of mind. I like to wake up first thing after an all night drunk and chug 2-3 Fierce Grape Gatorades and when I started noticing turds that looked like freshly picked produce I was worried I had a liver problem. But then I noticed the color would change mid-turd and sometimes have a tie-dye or kaleidescope effect, so I thought it could be a food dye, glad I found your site I can shit in peace now.
Froot Loops=Green Poo
Your amazing experiment has eased my mind and answered many of the questions I had about the world.
I had four bowls of Boo Berry cereal. BRIGHT GREEN poop.
This also explains why the black cherry slushie at Burger King so many years ago caused a difference in stool color.
I ate an insane amount of these sweet blue candies for the past two days
. They looked like little blue berries, but a brightly colored blue. They were delicious! I woke up this morning for my "morning dew" and it was bright green!!! I was shocked, thought something may be wrong. I remembered eating lots of the blue candy so I Googled to see if blue coloring created green dew.....I'm so relieved!!!!! Thanks for posting!!!!
Just one chocolate cupcake with blue icing produced the green effect the next day for me. I thought "WTF??!!"
I was too embarrassed to call my doctor, but was greatly relieved to read this article!! Thank you.
Unfortunately, you can't really put warning labels on cupcakes...
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Grape Shasta. Makes sense now.
I just read this on a site where bodybuilders go to discuss their poop. I should probably add that my poop turns gold after I go down on Kim Kardashian.
16 oz of grape Kool-Aide and I'm good. 1L of grape Gatorade and I shat. Green. As a youngster, around 5ish, I recall having a rhinovirus. Don't remember the details other than green poo. Naturally, this time I freaked. I'm not even sure if the same virus strain still lurks 30 yrs later. Anyhow, thanks to all of you brave 'dooers' who experimented in the name of society!
Great Value Cereal Fruit Spins turns my son's stool green. I hope this comment helps some other concerned parent.
LOL, Blue ocean water at Sonic. YUP turned my poo green.
My poo has been a fetching shade of spring green for a while now and thanks to this lovely page I am no longer considering a visit to the emergency room. Blue snow-cones are the culprit! You saved me hundreds of dollars and countless hours of humiliation! Hooray!
I was petrified a moment ago when my two year old had bad diarrohea in the toilet which was olive green then suddenly turned bright, light green! I panicked phoned my mum and was just about to make a docs appointment when I thought to check the internet. It suddenly crossed my mind that my daughter had eaten some of the spare coloured icing I had made to ice my father's b'day cake. She took bits as I was working on it and it was two icings of vivid blue and lime/green! I wondered if the icing could have affected her poo and sure enough realised on reading your article that yes, it can! Not sure I want to eat some of dad's cake now!! I have eaten it before and never altered my poo but my little girl has a tummy bug anyway so presumably it must have passed straight through her! Anyway, panic over with! Phew! Thanks for your article- interesting and certainly enlightening!!! :D
I can't figure out how to leave a comment, so I'm 'replying' to yours.
Anyway, I had an ugly green poop this morn. Looking around as to what causes greenies, I found this article and realized I had been drinking a bunch of this cheap-o dollar store THIRSTEE grape mix. It used Blue 1 and Blue Lake 1...unlike the Blue used in the experiment. I wonder if that makes a difference?
Amazing, isn't it. I had similar
situation.
During the summer months we would get lemon ice a couple times a week. I love the blue raspberry.
Had noticed a change in color for the past month. Started to really get worried and finally found this website.
Have since decided no more Blue Ice for me. Thanks
Two cans of Green Tilt and one can Blue Tilt = Super green poop in the AM. I'm so glad I'm not alone.
If green tea makes your poop green you are drinking a tea with some kind of food coloring added. Green tea has a very small amount of green color, it's really more yellow than green or very light green at best.
I have been drinking green tea on a daily basis for about 50 years and my shit has almost always been the traditional brown.
How long a minute is depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on!
Ditto! Same time frame too! Came home after being in Epcot's Mexico this past Sunday and by Monday (10/24) we were all dropping little leprechauns. Four days later, still at it. Lots of Blue Dye #5 in the blue corn chips!
You post helped me tremendously... I was freaking out today when I saw my stool this morning. My initial thought was that I was sick. When thinking about what I ate yesterday, the only think that had any color in it...were the chips at the Cantina. Your posts confirmed my suspicions. Thank you.
No I can just appreciate the novelty of having green pooh.
OMG...I just got home from 8 days in Disney and have been pooping GREEN! You just totally made me feel better, we ate in Mexico 3 times while we were there!
I just experienced the same thing at Epcot eating their fake blue tortilla chips.
Oh, butt you are so very, very abnormal ;-)
Wow... I had the exact same experience at Disneyworld. It was totally bright green the next day. I suspected the blue corn chips from the cantina at Epcot. Now I know for sure!
Sound like rip-off Disney serving fake blue corn chips... the real ones don't paint your poo.
But a friend of mine took a vacation in New Mexico and caught some funky parasite from blue corn tortillas (not chips). She was rather fond of the critters and sorry to see the doctors poison them out of her system. She and Daphne would probably get along rather well...
There is no "blueish green" to speak off. Captain Crunch all berries has turned my poo GREEN for days. I mean like motherboard green, or mountain dew bottle green. Scared the crap out of me the first time (hehehehe)
Yes, Captain Crunch, "Oops! All Berries" has turned my wife's poo really bright green. It's crazy, I could see the dyes running out of the poop. We thought she had something going on with her bile? Scarred the shit out of us! More like "Poops All Berries!"
I had to post the above comment out of pure Grammar Nazi urge. We receive spam messages all the time from essay-writing companies, such as this one.
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Thank you.
.....hugging bunnies since 1969
www.daphneszoo.com
Just got back from Disney, green poo after eating mexican at Epcot!
Same thing happened to us when we ate there!!! We freaked out, glad to hear same thing happened to you!
I encourage all PoopReports to drink copious amounts of Kool-Aid this Fourth of July weekend, and report back your results. We should attempt to mimic Dave J's experiment as closely as possible... so try for at least 3000 ml (that's roughly 3/4th of a gallon) of Kool-Aid along with a similar amount of water, or, if you're a real trooper, 6000 ml (1.5 gallons).
Even if you don't stick quite to the way Dave J prescribed it, please report back on your findings.
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