Red urine after beetroot can mean anemia. What should worry you?

Red urine after eating beetroot (beeturia) is the passing of pink or red urine after eating beetroot. It occurs in 10–14% of people, more often in people with iron deficiency and or low stomach acidity. Passing red urine after eating beetroot is a benign condition, but sometimes it is worth doing tests to check if it is not a sign of health problems.

What causes red urine after beetroot?

The occurrence of red urine after beetroot, or beeturia , is a discoloration of urine after eating beetroot, food colored with beetroot, or beet dye. The cause is the excretion of harmless betalain pigments, such as betanin. This phenomenon is not as common as it might seem — it occurs in 10–14% of the population . Urine after eating beetroot can be pink to intensely red, and many different factors influence this.

Scientists have noticed that betalain pigments lose their color, among others, under the influence of acids and iron ions . The change in urine color after beetroot may also be influenced by genetic factors, food allergies, the degree of stomach acidity, the rate of stomach emptying, the presence of oxalic acid in the intestine (e.g. after eating sorrel, rhubarb), but also the presence of drugs that affect stomach acidity (e.g. proton pump inhibitors), the variety of beetroot and the way it is stored.

Although a change in urine color after eating beetroot is usually no surprise to us, experts point out that beeturia is more common in people with iron deficiency , low levels…