I have a few question that I can not find answers to with out the embarrasement of asking my doctor. Can tomatoes, red bell peppers or salsa change the way your stool looks so as if you may think you have blood in your stool. I have had med dark red mixed in with stool on two differant times, each time being over month appart and all the times I have either had red bell peppers, salsa or tomatoes. If I drink alot of V8 juice and have a bowel movement it is almost colored like V8 juice so I was wondering if certain foods can cause blood like colors in your stool....Thank very much.....

Several different types of food with natural or artificial coloring may cause red colored stools, which looks like hematochezia. These can include:

red gelatin, popsicles, or Kool-Aid
tomato juice or soup
large amounts beets

A physician should be consulted immediately if red or maroon colored stools can not be attributed to a benign cause such as a food.

Give yourself a few days and if it doesn't clear up (change back to normal color), you might want to check with your Doctor just to put your mind at ease.

Hope this helps

Dave

Thanks Dave, This morning was fine, normal color and normal size. What I am trying not to do is run to my doctor every time I think something is wrong. I just look into it and think the worse ever since my dad had his prostate removed a year ago. At age 42 I had complete blood work done just because I wanted to and everything was fine. Even if I found some red in my stool, would`nt there be black also some time. Thanks, Steve