Beetroot (hopefully) poo woes - TMI warning

[BeetrootBum]

Posting here for traffic and definitely NOT the poo troll!

I ate a lot of beetroot on Tuesday at about 3pm. Basically opened a 300g pack of Sainsbury's fresh beetroot meaning to have a couple of pieces but it was so nice I ate the lot. I've been a bit constipated lately so I thought it might get things moving a bit, too.

Yesterday morning's toilet visit was pretty normal. Went again yesterday afternoon (the beetroot seems to have sorted the constipation!) and it was a slightly tinged red, which I expected. However when I've been this morning (and here's the TMI warning) the toilet bowl looked like a massacre. The water was bright red and it looked like it had seeped out of the poo iyswim - it was in a sort of red puddle at the bottom of the toilet.

I'm a beetroot veteran and I'm used to seeing the results but I don't remember it being like this two days after I've eaten it before. I have HA and am getting a bit worked up. Is it because I a) ate so much and b) things have been a bit 'slow' so it's taken a while to show up do you think? Of course I'm worried it's blood and there's something seriously wrong.

Put my mind at rest before I go bananas please!

It will be the beetroot OP. It turns urine red as well.

This was me 2 weeks ago. Again, 48 hours later. Thought I was dying until I remembered the home grown roasted beetroot I’d had for lunch 🤣🤣🤣

Thank you! I was fairly sure that's what it would be but I've already had one scare this week in that area - I've recently had covid and was given antivirals which caused five days of explosive bottom, resulting in an anal fissure which bled when I wiped. Again I thought I was dying until I realised what caused it (I've had similar before, years ago). It was just a smear on the paper though, not in the bowl like this morning. Totally healed now so definitely not connected to this morning's 'output'!

Why does beetroot poo have to be the same colour as blood and therefore scare the (literal) shit out of those of us with HA?! Maybe best avoided in future...

I had a load of beetroot at around the time the "bowel babe" lady was in the news a lot so bowel cancer was already on my radar. I had never eaten beetroot before as I thought it was horrible until I discovered you can eat it raw in salads and not just pickled
I was convinced my time was up until Google came to the rescue

Haha that was me nibbling raw beetroot when I was chopping up our haul for chutney, for pickling, for freezing over 2 days (we grew masses, t's very easy to grow apart from if you have deer they LOVE the baby leaves).

I may try wine next year.

My sister once took herself to A&E due to sudden severe bleeding when she pooed. She thought she was dying, had us all in a panic. I was on my way to hospital to sit with her when she called me and told me the nurses in A&E had examined a sample and it turned out to be beetroot 😂

This is EXACTLY the sort of thing I would do 😬

I've just been again and it's the same as it was this morning - does beetroot really stay in your system this long?! It's exactly 48 hours since I ate it.

It only seems to show up when (ugh sorry) the poo has been sitting in the water for a bit - the red sort of leaches out and forms a bit of a puddle around it.

I really hope nobody is eating lunch!

If you have a colonoscopy you are told not to eat or drink anything red or purple for a couple of days beforehand. It's not just that it ends up in poo, it's that the dye can temporarily stain bits of the colon and look like blood or mask polyps, etc. It's probably that colour that's hanging around and getting picked up as other stuff goes through, so to speak. Give it a few days and don't eat or drink anything else red or purple. If it still looks red then give your surgery a ring.

This is good advice, thank you. I did wonder if I was just a bit 'stained'! I actually have a FIT test ready to go - I was sent one last week as part of the screening programme. I haven't done it yet because the fissure was healing but I'll get it sent off tomorrow whatever happens.

If it’s any comfort, I put bleach down the toilet yesterday morning. Went for a pee a couple of hours later, went to flush and saw the liquid in the bowl was reddy brown coloured. Panic set in until Dr Google confirmed that due to a chemical reaction between urine and hypochlorite bleach, which is a common toilet bowl cleaner, turns the urine red.

We fed friends DH’s delicious beetroot risotto once, and warned them discreetly before they left what the likely effects were…

Haha I've done this.. but after a wee.. forgot I had eaten loads beetroot the day before.. panicked a bit, then remembered..

Next, have yourself some Berocca , turns your wee luminous.. haha.

I have also done this 😂

Don't do the FIT test until you're certain the colour has cleared your system. Unless you particularly enjoy colonoscopies.

Who knew there was such fun to be had with bodily functions?!

I used to take sulfasalazine for rheumatoid arthritis and for the full five years I was on it, my wee was bright orange. It looked like Fanta 😂

Don't have the high potency Vit B tablets. Your wee turns a weird fluorescent yellow highlighter colour. Very vivid 😮😂

I think you will have beetroot staining for at least another day just due to the sheer volume you consumed. I have a feeling this is going to be your body's moral story of "back away from the beetroot, don't do it!" 😂

It is called beeturia when it turns your pee pink. Yes poo looks awful too.
Beetroot is so good for your health. I try and get my young grandchildren to eat it by telling them it will turn their pee pink. I roast raw beetroot.

I had some major gynae surgery and was recuperating. DH took me out for lunch - I went to the loo.
Red in the toilet bowl.
I sat back down and told DH I needed to get to A&E immediately. We set off and I am telling him what to do if I become unconscious.

Then as we approach the hospital I remembered

I had eaten a few baby beetroots the evening before....😳