Eat red heart dragon fruit "urine blood"! What's going on?

after eating the dragon fruit of hearts, the urine turned red. I don't know if you have ever seen such news or experienced such a thing. Red urine is reminiscent of bleeding, but it's not-it's caused by natural pigments in plants. Let's talk about these pigments today.

the flesh of red dragon fruit is red and purple, and the color is very bright. Its color does not come from anthocyanins but belongs to another kind of water-soluble plant pigment-betaine. It is this kind of thing that turns people's urine red.

the chemical structure of beetrope pigments is as follows:

as the name suggests, one of the best-known sources of these pigments in the red beetroot, which looks like purple radish and can be used to make red vegetable soup. Like red dragon fruit, red beet has always been famous for staining diners' urine, and even "beet urine" has become a proper term (Beeturia).

Why does betaine dye people's urine red? The simple answer is that this pigment can be absorbed by people in the intestines, and after absorption, it will be excreted quickly from the kidneys to the urine, as long as there is enough pigment in the urine. You can see a good-looking pink (Hello)

(for example)

but the details behind this are more complicated. The situation 

is similar to that of "asparagus urine". Whether "beet urine" is obvious or not varies greatly among individuals. Many people can't see red urine visible to the naked eye after eating it, and there will be differences even in the same individual.

unlike asparagus urine, one of the main factors affecting beet urine is pH in the stomach. This pigment is mainly absorbed in the colon, and it is easy to be destroyed in a strongly acidic environment, so whether it can be absorbed and excreted depends on how many pigments "survive" in the stomach. If the acid in the stomach is not strong enough and more pigments are retained when eating these foods, red urine is more likely to occur. For example, it has been reported that a person who did not know how to pee after eating beets suddenly became red after eating beets after taking drugs to inhibit stomach acid. In addition, the ingredients of the food eaten together also affect the "survival" rate of pigments.

have you had a similar experience? Anyway, after eating beets, I didn't find pink urine feeling a little disappointed.

other strange things that may happen to eat food

Bean knowledge: Drinking milk can't turn white, but carrots may make you yellow

how does the strange smell of "asparagus urine" come from?

although it may be strange, the phenomena mentioned here are harmless. Other experiences are also welcome to comment and exchange.

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