Study Curve

Poop, or stools are formed from feces. Feces are the particles of waste matter that are left over after the body has processed and absorbed nutrients from the foods we eat.

Feces contain water, dietary fiber, inorganic salts, dead cells, bacteria, and anything the body cannot or will not absorb. Dietary fiber and water are significant ingredients in a stool. Together, fiber and water create the quality, mass and volume of a stool.

Bile salts in the stool excreted by the liver give it a normal brown color.

A green stool can usually be attributed to something you have ingested.

The most obvious is green foods that you have eaten, such as green leafy vegetables, or foods with a lot of dark purple or green food coloring like Kool-Aid or gelatin. It can also be caused by vitamins that contain chlorophyll. These may not appear green, but the chlorophyll in them will turnstool a green color.

Food and medicine are not the only reasons for green stool; again a fast transit time can cause a stool to turn green. If your stool is passing too rapidly through your intestines, it does not allow bile to break it down. Before being broken down by bile, stool is green. As mentioned above, it is the bile that actually turns stools brown in color.