Why Isn’t My Pee the Color of the Drink I Had and What Happens To the Color of the Food and Drink We Consume?

Any colored compound that you drink either will or will not interact biochemically with the body’s systems.

If it does, this interaction, like any other chemical reaction it might undergo, will tend to alter or eliminate its color.

If it does not, the digestive system will usually decline to absorb it and it will be excreted in the faeces which, you will have noticed, show considerably more color variation than the urine.

Colored substances in food and drink are usually organic compounds that the human body has an amazing ability to metabolise, turning them into colorless carbon dioxide, water and urea.

The toughest stuff is often taken care of by the liver, which is a veritable waste incinerator.

However, on the very infrequent occasion when the intake of colored substances exceeds what the body can quickly metabolise, the color is not necessarily removed as the liquid leaves the body.

This is well known to anyone who has indulged in large quantities of borsch, or Russian beetroot soup.

The liquid that leaves the body is almost unrelated, in chemical composition, to the liquid consumed.

Any substance, solid or liquid, that goes down the oesophagus, passes through the digestive tract and, if not absorbed, is incorporated into the faecal matter.

Urine, in contrast, is created by the kidneys from metabolic waste produced in the tissues and transported through the bloodstream.