4 Things that Can Change the Color of Your Urine

Whether you're bored, curious, or just going to a Pink Floyd laser show, there comes a time where every person wants to change the color of their urine. Either that, or they just want to figure out what the hell caused their urine to change color in the first place. It's at this point that we ask a Metallica roadie: dude, what changes the color of urine?

Luckily, through no fault of my own, I happen to know more about urine discoloration than all of the Metallica roadies in the world combined. Here are four drugs and foods that will change the color of your urine.


1. Food Coloring - Possibly the most boring way to change the color of one's urine is the safe consumption of food coloring. Urine can turn blue, green, and bright yellow, quite obviously depending on the color of the artificial coloring. The fun is that you'll often consume great amounts of artificial food coloring without realizing it, even in some medications, which can cause unexpected changes in urine color.

2. Beets - Beets can turn your urine pink in large enough amounts. The exact amount will depend on your body type, how much water you drink, what other things you've had to eat, etc., but if you're looking for a special way to celebrate Valentine's Day alone, you can eat a whole lot of the tasty veggie and spend the day with pink urine. To diminish the effect, drink a lot of water and your urine should return to its normal, boring color.

3. Phenazopyridine - This over the counter pain killer is used for treatment of urinary tract infections. It works by releasing a numbing agent into the urine (although it's completely safe to take if you don't happen to have a UTI) that turns your urine a dark orange or even reddish color. If you're one of the poor souls who didn't read the back of the box and all of the warning info before taking phenazopyridine, you'll be in for a nasty shock the next time you hit up the bathroom.