The color of your stool: what does it say about your health?

We all do it, yet we don’t find it easy to talk about. However, our bowel movements tell us quite a lot about our health and lifestyle. By observing your bowel movements, you can pick up important signals about what’s happening inside your body. Indeed, it’s important to break the taboo and make bowel movements a topic of discussion. Only then can you better understand what your body needs.

Bowel movements consist mainly of water, food residues that our body hasn’t used, and gut bacteria. Our body needs the water to break down nutrients and absorb them through the intestinal wall. The indigestible food residues ensure smooth bowel movements, and the bacteria come from our gut flora.

But our bowel movements are not the same every day, and there are also significant individual differences in terms of volume, frequency, shape, consistency and colour. All these factors tell us something about our lifestyle and health. The key message is: take a look in the toilet bowl!

Green stools

Green stools are usually harmless. If you have eaten a lot of green vegetables, such as broccoli or kale, your stools may take on a greener colour due to the presence of chlorophyll.

Another possible cause is rapid passage through the digestive tract. When food moves through your intestines too quickly, bile has less time to be broken down and remains green. This can happen, for example, due to diarrhoea, whether or not caused by an infection.

Incidentally, the stools of breastfed newborn babies are often yellow-green too. This is completely normal and nothing to worry about.

Yellow, greasy stools that stick to the toilet bowl usually indicate malabsorption. Your body is not absorbing fats properly. This can happen, for example, when there are insufficient pancreatic enzymes to digest the fat in your diet.

Stress can also be a major cause of yellowish stools. It is mainly our stress hormones that prepare our body for stressful situations and, as a result, speed up bowel transit. This means your stools do not have time to develop their normal, brown colour. This is often accompanied by softer stools or even diarrhoea.

Stools can also take on a yellowish colour in the event of an infection causing diarrhoea. This is because there is more water in the stool due to the rapid intestinal transit. Intestinal cells produce extra fluid and mucus in response to the infection.

Black stools, also known as melena, can be caused by something relatively harmless, such as excessive iron intake. Eating spinach or blueberries, for example, can also cause this. However, it may also indicate bleeding in the upper part of the digestive tract, such as the stomach or oesophagus. Think of a stomach ulcer or inflammation. The blood is broken down and oxidised by stomach acid and enzymes, causing the stools to become very dark.

Black stools resulting from dark-coloured food should normally return to a normal brown colour after a few days. If you are unsure of the cause of the black colour and it persists, it is best to contact your doctor. Especially if the stools are black, tarry and sticky, it is important to raise the alarm to be on the safe side.

Bright red stools can be quite alarming, but the cause is not always serious. It is often due to eating red-coloured foods such as beetroot or red cabbage.

As mentioned above, black stools can indicate bleeding from the upper part of the digestive tract. Red-coloured stools, on the other hand, may be the result of bleeding in the lower part of your digestive system, such as from haemorrhoids or a tear in the anus. If you experience regular or heavy bleeding, you should see your doctor as soon as possible.

If your stools are orange, it’s best to check whether you’ve recently eaten foods containing carotenoids. This is a natural pigment found in foods such as sweet potatoes, carrots and apricots.

Grey, white or clay-coloured stools are a sign that there is no bile present. After all, it is the bilirubin in your bile that gives stools their brown or sometimes yellow-green colour. Possible causes include gallstones or liver problems. As bile is essential for the digestion of fats and the normal colour of stools, it is important to contact your doctor if you have discoloured stools.

Take a look back!

If you have a single bowel movement of a different colour, there’s no need to worry. Often, the change in colour is down to certain foods or drinks you’ve recently consumed. However, if the colour remains consistently abnormal, it’s best to contact your doctor. Break the taboo and discuss the colour, consistency and frequency of your bowel movements. It is a valuable source of information about your health.