The green vegetables I eat are black when I poop them out

A person's diet has a great influence on the color of stool. The stool of a normal person should be yellowish-brown. This is because during the process of gastrointestinal digestion and absorption, excess waste must pass through the gallbladder. The bile secreted by the gallbladder will produce bilirubin, which turns the stool yellowish-brown. However, if a person eats blood sausage on that day, he or she will easily have black stools. But why do I still have black stools after eating green vegetables?

Does eating spinach make your stool black?

Eating too much spinach may cause black stools. But don't worry, this is normal. Because spinach is rich in iron, and iron will combine with hydrogen sulfide in the gastrointestinal tract, causing the stool to turn black. In daily life, if you eat foods with heavy pigments, it will directly affect the color of your stool. These pigments are not completely absorbed and decomposed in the body and are excreted in the feces. If you eat animal blood, liver, and more meat, or take iron or carbon supplements, your stool may be black.

What to do if your stool is black after eating spinach

If your stool is black just because you eat spinach, as long as you have no discomfort symptoms, then you don’t need to take any special treatment and the black stool will disappear naturally after a while.

Note: Don’t eat too much spinach, about 30 grams a day is enough. This is not only to avoid black stools, but also because spinach is cold in nature, has the effect of laxative, moistening dryness and promoting defecation. However, due to its cold nature, eating too much will cause the stomach and intestines to get cold, which is easy to cause diarrhea, abdominal pain and other gastrointestinal discomfort symptoms for people with bad stomachs and weak spleen and stomach. In addition, spinach is rich in dietary fiber and can easily cause indigestion, because crude fiber is difficult to digest in the human body. Eating too much spinach at one time will increase the burden on the stomach and intestines and cause symptoms such as indigestion.

Tips: Spinach cannot be used to supplement iron and blood

Based on 100g, the average iron content of spinach in my country is 2.7mg, which is relatively high among vegetables. The iron content of spinach is comparable to that of lean meat. In comparison, pork and eggs contain 1.6mg and 2mg respectively.

However, many people eat a lot of spinach in order to supplement the iron in spinach to achieve the purpose of blood supplementation, which is wrong. Iron is divided into two types: heme iron and non-heme iron. The absorption rate of the latter is lower than that of the former. The iron in spinach and other vegetables is non-heme iron. In addition, spinach also contains a large amount of oxalic acid, which can combine with various minerals and affect absorption. Therefore, the absorption rate of iron in spinach is only 1%. In other words, more than ten kilograms of spinach are equivalent to 50 grams of pork liver. The amino acids in meat products increase iron absorption. Therefore, in comprehensive comparison, the iron supplement effect of spinach is much worse. Therefore, eating too much spinach will not replenish your blood, and the oxalic acid it contains will also affect the body's absorption and utilization of iron.