After a shock when using the bathroom (having forgotten the beetroot consumption earlier that day), I had a look online to see if it the red colour passes through everyone (noting asparagus makes some people’s urine smell but not all).
I have no idea if the source is good, and it appears not to offer any conclusive info (have not gone down into references any further), but does anyone have any information or knowledge on this matter?
Reason for asking is that previously I have consumed beets are not noticed any red passing through. Could be volume consumed, but if there is a link between iron deficiency and passing of red through that could be a good sign for me to act (never had an iron deficiency flagged previously nor have changed my diet since last routine work medical).
I notice cheaper brand mushy peas have a colouring effect due to the steeping methods/added colours, and also the asparagus thing is true. I also had a really vivid colour after Myprotein multivitamins which others verified, generally down to the excess not required by your body. I wouldn’t say it was a deficiency rather than surplus.
Edit: I’m no doctor but are you sure it was the beets and not blood…? heamaturia can be a sign of other issues, obviously
Good call on it checking for blood - thankfully the two occasions this has happened have been within 24 hours of drinking a decent quantity of beetroot juice and there have been no other instances. The outcome was consistent in both toilet variants, just more obvious in urine.
I’ll have a check of the ingredients to see if there is anything ‘added’ and label to see how it is manufactured and whether concentrated though - they might be doing something in the processing that has concentrated or altered the product
I would encourage you to check with your doctor (maybe after this covid calms down). If you aren’t having any pain, that is a good sign. Just want to make sure that you don’t have a kidney stone. It could be that you passed one and there are residual blood (hematuria). Again, maybe not. Usually a hint of urine to the red side can be a sign of something at least you should look into.
I think taste might be highly subjective, rocket to me is an abomination of the plate (I also have loads of beets in various stages of growth at the moment!).
Beets are notorious for coloring your pee and/or bowel movements. The red color is very unlikely to be blood, especially if it’s correlated with you consuming beets. If you have intestinal bleeding you’re looking for “black, tarry stools”, not red color. If you find blood spots on your TP, it’'s likely a superficial would right near the exit… maybe a hemorrhoid.
FWIW, I’ve found that fresh beets result jn a different colour than beet juice, and there are also different types of beets, some which have a lot less colour. I’d also think there might well be beet juices out there with red colouring in. And then the colour might depend on what else you ate, how much fluid you took in, etc. All of that seems more likely to me to cause variation than a change in iron levels.
So I started juicing beets. Both urine and poop are red. Forgive my earlier comments as I am convinced now that beets do in fact cause you to look twice and make sure that it is in fact red and a function of added beet juice! Wow! My guess is that if you had to go to the doctor, there should be a disclaimer for urine sample!
