Red poop

Red poop is often food: beets, red food coloring, tomato juice or soup, cranberries and red gelatin can all turn stool red. It can also be blood, which is why red deserves a second look. Bright red blood usually comes from low in the gut, most often hemorrhoids or a small tear called a fissure, and those are usually benign. But any blood you cannot explain deserves a check-in with a clinician, and heavy bleeding, or bleeding with dizziness, needs care right away.

What a scan can and cannot do here: Stoolio reads color alongside your Bristol type and 12 visual readings and keeps a dated record, which is useful context for a clinician. It cannot test for blood, so if you see red you cannot explain, call a professional rather than an app.

Why can poop be red?

Two very different reasons: something red passed through you, or blood did. Food and drink dyes, beets and a handful of medicines account for a large share of red stools. Blood can come from anywhere along the digestive tract, and where it comes from changes how it looks. Bright red usually means a source near the end of the line; darker, maroon blood can mean a source higher in the colon or small intestine.

Common explanations

• Beets. Their pigment can give stool a blood-red color, and can turn urine reddish too. A published case report describes a beet supplement that was mistaken for rectal bleeding.
• Red food coloring and red foods. Red drinks and drink mixes, red gelatin, tomato juice or soup, and cranberries (Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic).
• Medicines. Some red-colored liquid medicines, and the antibiotic cefdinir taken with iron, can produce red stools with no blood in them.
• Hemorrhoids. Swollen veins around the anus are the most common cause of blood in stool, usually bright red and seen on the paper or in the bowl.
• Anal fissures. Small tears in the lining of the anal canal that can cause pain and bleeding.
• Other sources of bleeding, such as diverticular disease, inflammatory bowel disease, infections, polyps or colorectal cancer (NIDDK, Cleveland Clinic). In older adults, diverticular bleeding is the most common cause of rectal bleeding.

Foods that can turn poop red

Beets and beet supplements; red food coloring in drinks, candy, frosting and cereal; red gelatin; tomato juice, soup and skins; cranberries; and, in children, even watermelon and red peppers. A food-driven red should clear once the food has passed. Pediatric guidance says within about 48 hours of stopping it.

Food red or blood? What helps tell them apart

• Timing. Did you eat or drink something red in the last day or two? Food-red fades when the food is gone.
• Where it is. The NHS lists blood on the toilet paper, red streaks on the outside of the stool and pink water in the bowl among the ways bleeding shows up.
• Other symptoms. Pain when passing stool fits a fissure, which can cause both pain and bleeding. Dizziness, weakness or a racing heart with bleeding needs care right away.

None of these settles it. Only a test can confirm blood, which is why the safe rule is simple: red you cannot explain is a question for a clinician.

When to check in with a clinician

• Contact a healthcare provider if you notice blood in your poop or in the toilet bowl (Cleveland Clinic), including small amounts.
• Get care right away if the bleeding is heavy or does not stop, if the toilet water turns red or you pass clots, or if you feel dizzy, weak or faint, or have severe pain.
• Diarrhea with blood is also a reason to see a doctor promptly (NIDDK).

Any blood in a child's stool should be checked by their pediatrician, even though the cause is most often something minor such as constipation.

What Stoolio looks at visually

Stoolio's Color Assessment places each scan on six shades: pale, light brown, brown, dark brown, green and very dark. Red is not one of them, and a photo cannot test for blood; stool blood tests exist because some bleeding is invisible to the eye. What Stoolio does well is the record around it: your Bristol type, dated scans and notes, and an exportable summary to bring to an appointment. See the full poop color chart.

Sources

1. Mayo Clinic. Stool color. 2024.
2. Cleveland Clinic. What Does My Stool (Poop) Color Mean?
3. Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials. Can Food Change the Color of Your Poop? 2025.
4. Oscherwitz M, et al. A Case of Pseudo-Hematochezia from Beet Supplement Ingestion. Am J Med. 2023.
5. Lancaster J, et al. Nonbloody, red stools from coadministration of cefdinir and iron-supplemented infant formulas. Pharmacotherapy. 2008.
6. Cleveland Clinic. Rectal Bleeding.
7. Sabry AO, et al. Rectal Bleeding. StatPearls.
8. NIDDK. Symptoms & Causes of GI Bleeding.
9. NHS. Bleeding from the bottom (rectal bleeding).
10. AAP HealthyChildren. Red Stools in Children: Common Causes. 2024.
11. MedlinePlus. Black or tarry stools.
12. NIDDK. Symptoms & Causes of Diarrhea.