6 Foods That Change Urine Color
Diet & NutritionFood & Ingredients
Explore This Topic

6 Foods That Can Change the Color of Your Pee

6 Foods That Can Change the Color of Your Pee
Everyday Health
By
Updated on August 14, 2025
by

The color of your pee changes depending on how much water or other fluids you have consumed. This makes urine a great visual indicator of how hydrated you are.

But what does it mean when the color of your urine color changes from its usual range of yellows?

Urine may appear in a variety of different colors: reddish pink, dark brown, light orange, bright yellow, and even blue.

 A new or different color may come from a harmless diet or medication change. The following foods and nutrients can affect your pee.

1. Beets

Beeturia, or urine discolored by beets or beetroot, affects 10 to 14 percent of people. It is more common with people who have an iron deficiency.

 Chalk up that pink-to-deep-red urine to plant pigments and similar compounds, says Taylor Wallace, PhD, the principal and CEO at Think Healthy Group and an adjunct associate professor at Tufts University and George Washington University.

2. Rhubarb

Large amounts of rhubarb can also turn your pee pink or red. This is likely a result of the anthocyanins in rhubarb, which are the compounds that give rhubarb its vibrant pink hue.

 Going heavy on the rhubarb could even turn your urine dark brown.

3. Vitamin B

Vitamin B is in animal proteins, leafy greens, and fortified cereals and breads. Certain types of vitamin B can turn your urine green or yellow and give it a fishy or musty smell.

4. Foods With Bright Dyes

Food dyes or colorings may show up in candy, cereal, and soft drinks. If your urine is bright green or blue, and you do not have additional symptoms, the color may come from these dyes.

5. Carrots

Ever heard that eating a lot of carrots can tint your skin orange? It's true — and that's because of the beta-carotene in carrots, which is the pigment that makes carrots orange.

 It can have the same tinting effect on your urine.

6. Vitamin C

"Some foods — but mostly higher-dose supplements — that contain vitamin C change your urine bright yellow or orange,” Dr. Wallace says.

This happens because vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin.

 If you consume a lot of vitamin C via foods such as kiwis, bell peppers, and strawberries or from supplements, you just pee out the excess. Although orange-colored urine can be cause for concern at times, vitamin C is considered an important part of your diet — and this side effect often does not indicate a serious health issue.

When to See a Doctor

Ideally, your urine should be clear yellow.

 A change in color is usually a harmless by-product of food or medication, it also can show that something is wrong.
Dark yellow and even brown urine could indicate dehydration, for example.

"If your urine is consistently dark yellow or orange, and adjusting your fluid intake and supplements doesn't work, you should see a doctor,” Wallace says. “This can be a sign of liver or biliary tract problems.”

Additional color changes could be the result of kidney issues or urinary tract infections. Contact your doctor if you are concerned about the color of your urine or if your symptoms include:

  • Bubbly or frothy urine
  • Red or deep brown urine
  • Urine that contains blood
  • Changes that last more than a few days and are not the result of food or medication

The Takeaway

  • Changes to the color of your urine may be harmless results of foods such as beets, rhubarb, or carrots.
  • Vitamins B and C also can alter the color of your pee, either as supplements or through foods high in these nutrients.
  • Call your doctor if changes to your urine color last more than a few days or if your urine is bubbly, red, or contains blood.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Urine Color. Mayo Clinic. January 10, 2023.
  2. Sauder HM et al. Beeturia. StatPearls. May 22, 2023.
  3. Wojtania A et al. Optimizing the Micropropagation of Red-Stalked Rhubarb Selections: A Strategy for Mass Production of High-Quality Planting Material. Agronomy. December 26, 2024.
  4. Urine Changes. Cleveland Clinic. September 28, 2023.
  5. Urine. Cleveland Clinic. January 14, 2025.
  6. Al Nasser Y et al. Carotenemia. StatPearls. June 12, 2023.
  7. Vitamin C. MedlinePlus. January 19, 2023.
Meet Our Experts
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network
kayli-anderson-bio

Kayli Anderson, RDN

Medical Reviewer
Member of American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Kayli Anderson has over a decade of experience in nutrition, culinary education, and lifestyle medicine. She believes that eating well should be simple, pleasurable, and sustainable. Anderson has worked with clients from all walks of life, but she currently specializes in nutrition therapy and lifestyle medicine for women. She’s the founder of PlantBasedMavens.com, a hub for women to get evidence-based, practical, and woman-centered guidance on nutrition and cooking, hormone health, fertility, pregnancy, movement, mental well-being, nontoxic living, and more.

Anderson is board-certified in lifestyle medicine and serves as lead faculty of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s (ACLM) "Food as Medicine" course. She is past chair of the ACLM's registered dietitian member interest group, secretary of the women's health member interest group, and nutrition faculty for many of ACLM's other course offerings. She is the coauthor of the Plant-Based Nutrition Quick Start Guide and works with many of the leading organizations in nutrition and lifestyle medicine to develop nutrition content, recipes, and educational programs.

Anderson frequently speaks on the topics of women’s health and plant-based nutrition and has coauthored two lifestyle medicine textbooks, including the first one on women’s health, Improving Women's Health Across the Lifespan.

She received a master's degree in nutrition and physical performance and is certified as an exercise physiologist and intuitive eating counselor. She's a student of herbal medicine and women's integrative and functional medicine. She lives with her husband in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, where you’ll find her out on a trail or in her garden.

See full bio

Brierley Horton, MS, RD

Author

Brierley Horton is a content creator and strategist who strives to inspire people to be healthier. A registered dietitian, she previously served as Food & Nutrition Director for Cooking Light. Prior to Cooking Light, Brierley was the long-time Nutrition Editor at EatingWell magazine and contributed to several of EatingWell’s award-winning features.

See full bio
See Our Editorial PolicyMeet Our Health Expert Network