When we eat a bunch of beets our pee shouldn’t turn pink.

Sure, pooing pink is normal.

But you shouldn’t pee pink.

When we have enough iron in our guts it decolorizes the chemical in beets that turns our pee pink. It’s called betanin. When we are low in iron, the beet runs the show and the pink runs like a river right through us.

Now, ten percent of people who do not have iron deficiency will have this happen regardless of their iron status. This is especially true if we have lower stomach acid from H Pylori infections and taking PPIs. But a mammoth 80% of iron deficient people will have pink pee on being beeten.

Within about a week of iron supplementation, the strawberry pee turns more straw yellow again. Test it yourself. Eat beets daily and if you see less and less of the pink in the bowl you can be confident iron deficiency is taking less of a toll.

If taking oral iron doesn’t make things better, consider iron infusions.

Don’t worry, beet happy.