The color of your stool is generally related directly to what you eat. Bile is a yellow-green liquid that is excreted by your liver. Bile digests fats in your stool. Usually bile travels in the gastrointestinal track and works with enzymes changing their color from green to brown. Any varying shade of brown is considered normal and means the bile is doing its job.

A red, maroon, or black stool can be serious. It can be an indication there is blood in the stool. You should make an appointment with your doctor if you have a red or black stool. A light grey stool is another stool color for which to take special care. Sometimes a light grey stool can be an indication of an ulcer or liver cancer.

Another determinant for good stool health is odor and consistency. When your body eliminates waste, it has usually been sitting in your colon for approximately three days. If the bile enzymes are doing their job you can expect the stool be odoriferous in an unpleasant way. Some people eliminate stool every day, or even 2-3 times a day, while others may only go once or twice a week. The important thing is that odor and amount are only a problem if it is something different than your usual bowel movements.

Good stool health is vital for the young and old alike. Keeping a close eye on your bowel movements is the first key to maintaining good overall health. Consistently checking your stool to make sure the color, odor and amount are your usual bowel movements is very important. When stools change, sometimes the answer is going to the doctor, but sometimes the answer is using a product to assist you in cleaning your colon. Being observant is the best way to ensure future stool health.

A person who has an occasional green stool that has a normal structure does not typically have anything to worry about. If the green stool is frequent or the stool is very loose a person may want to talk with their doctor. Diarrhea and fever may indicate there is something more serious that needs medical attention.

Eating a lot of green leafy vegetables like spinach can cause a person to have green stool. Typically, it is just one or two bowel movements that are affected, but depending on how much and how fast the body digests the food it could be several bowel movements. The coloring may also be a side effect from foods rich in food dyes as well.

Digestive problems may cause green stool. If a body is not properly digesting the food correctly, the food particles will not be absorbed into the intestines, leaving colored stools. Bile salts that are not properly processed through the intestines can also cause dark green stools.

Some antibiotics may cause the stool to change color. The bacterial levels are changed due to the introduction of a medicine and the stool color will most likely be affected. These stool color changes should only be temporary and subside when the medicine is stopped.

Other illnesses like celiac disease, irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis can cause green stool. These illnesses will need to be treated by a doctor. A person may also pass green stool if their body is starving, or just not getting the nutrients it needs.

For most green stool cases, the stool will pass on its own, and is not a cause for alarm. Some products can be used that will help clean the intestinal tract and clear up the green stool issue.

Often times, especially in babies, poop is green from breast feeding, or from the type of foods that they are eating. A diet rich in greens and veggies tends to make your poop green from all of the chlorophyll. Foods with a high iron content can turn your poop green if you eat too much of it. There is nothing wrong with having a high iron diet but it will cause discoloration of your poop. Most raw foodists’ poop is green because their diet consists of mostly veggies and fruits. This is nothing uncommon. Many food colorings can also make your poop be green because it is an unnatural item to ingest and your body doesn’t take to the food dyes.

If you have been sick, the consumption of bile or post nasal drip can cause your poop to be green. Sometimes your poop is green from the bile in your lower intestine. It is trying to rid your body of toxins and the bile creates a discoloration of your feces as it leaves your body, excreting you of the toxins you ingested.

Sometimes, your poop is green for an unhealthy reason, however. if your green poop is followed by any of these factors than you should see a doctor. Do you have diarrhea? If your poop is green followed by diarrhea, then you may have a problem with undigested food clogging your colon. Pain in the stomach, excessive weight gain or loss and digestive orders coupled with your green poop are all reasons that you should see a doctor immediately. These are not good things, and even if it is nothing serious, it’s better to be safe than sorry. To help prevent any of these issues, you should try to eat healthy and chew your food thoroughly so that you don’t get any kind of colon blockage.

A yellow feces color can indicate the presence of jaundice, jaundice is not a disease but rather a symptom of an underlying problem. A yellow stool can also be caused by a parasitic infection. called Giardia this paracitic infection can cause severe yellow color diarrhea. This is a contagious condition that must be reported.

Black feces color this is caused by blood in the intestine that has been there long enough to have be broken down by digestive system . The condition is usually caused by bleeding by some sort of bleeding in the stomach or the intestines. The black color is often cause for concern because it is a sign of iron in the blood.. some medications can cause the stool to become a black color so if you are on medication it would be wise to check with your doctor to see if these are causing a stool color change. Undigested blood in the digestive tract can cause a bright red feces color and should be addressed by a doctor. Alcoholism can cause the passage of a red-black feces color. This is usually a rather serious condition.

There are many foods that if ingested in large amounts will cause changes to your  feces color. Have you ever notices in babies how their stools will often be green? This is due to the fact that the digestive systems of infants are not yet use to the digestive process. Foods with a large amount of food coloring added can also affect the color of the feces. this is because the food dye will react with the bile in the system and affect the color of the feces. Changes in the feces color are usually harmless and will reflect the dietary influences.

There are specific and consistent changes to be on the alert for. The black foul smelling stool for example can be a warning sign of uclers or tumors. Typicaly from the stomach or small intestine. A feces that is the color of clay can be a sign of a lack of bile due to a blocked bile duct. A pale yellow and oily looking feces can indicate that fat is not being absorbed to due a problem with the pancreas such as cancer or cystic fibrosis.

Green stools usually result from something that you have eaten, such as an abundance of green vegetables, or perhaps a food that has been artificially colored with green. Oddly enough, even foods that are artificially colored with purple can cause green bowel movements. If you’ve spent the day wolfing down salads, asparagus, or broccoli, you might find that you next bowel movement will be off color. Iron supplements or foods that are very rich in iron can also cause green bowel movements, as well as some medications such as laxatives and antibiotics.

One of the physical causes of green bowel movements is a condition called “rapid transit”. When food is digested properly, it goes through the small intestine first. When it goes through small intestine, it is full of bile and very green. After food passes through the small intestine, it then goes through the large intestine where it is turned a brownish color. Sometimes food passes through the large intestine too quickly, and this will result in a green bowel movement. This condition is very common in breast fed infants and toddlers.

However, if you are experiencing cramping, abdominal pain, lower back pain or frequent diarrhea, there is indeed a strong possibility that your symptoms are related to underlying, more serious problems, which you should seek medical advice about.

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If you have milk or a lot of light colored food and your poop is really light, do you think that there is something wrong with you? Obviously, not, but that is not to say that having internal bleeding which is usually a common cause for dark poop could not be the cause for your dark poop. It’s just one possibility among others including the kind of food that you have injested and digested.

Another common cause of dark poop is constipation. If you had been constipated and suddenly have a bowel movement, your poop will be dark because of the toxins that build up in your colon while you’re constipated. Liver could be a reason for dark poop. The speculation about dark poop could keep you guessing. The only sensible suggestion is to make an appointment with your doctor if the dark poop continues or if you experience cramping and hard stools.

There are some doctors who might request that you bring a sample of your dark poop with you to have it checked for parasites or blood. That is the only way to know for sure. What you can do if you do not want to see a medical doctor is to try and clear up your colon yourself with either a colon cleanse program or a dietary supplement like acai berry added to your daily food regiment.

Another alternative to cleaning up whatever is irritating your colon is to try and stay off of irritating food for a few days and eat plenty of dairy products. Fresh fruit and cottage cheese will probably cause some gas but it means that there is nothing seriously wrong with you and your dark poop is food related.

If you experience nausea and headaches, you should tell your doctor or visit your health food store.

Consuming iron supplements and antacids have also been known to cause a change in color. Even some vitamins can cause a change in what we consider a normal “brown” color. And these items can affect the color of urine in addition to feces or “poop”.

Another possible source is a large amount of bile in the poop. Bile is a dark green substance produced in the liver and stored in the gallbladder that is used by the body during the digestion process. The greenish color could also be a sign of infection. An infection could be present somewhere in the digestive tract, but more commonly it is a result of swallowing mucus, or post nasal drip, resulting from a sinus infection or upper respiratory infection.

So, when asked, “what does green poop mean?” The answer is, generally, the offending green color will go away on its own with minimal intervention. However, should the unusual green color continue for longer than a few days or returns frequently, a visit to the doctor should be strongly considered. Also, if the change in color is accompanied by other symptoms, like fever, nausea, pain, a change in the consistency (softer or harder) of the poop then a visit to the doctor should not be postponed in the hopes that it will clear up on it’s own.