Have you ever wondered if your food is digesting quickly enough? Do you get the sense that things are lingering in your digestive tract too long?

If you aren’t pooping daily, that’s a good indicator you are correct.

Or maybe you are worried that things are digesting too quickly! You seem to poop throughout the day, multiple times, and it’s often runny.

Might I introduce you to…

 

The BEET CHALLENGE!!!

 

You know how beets turn people’s poop purple/red? Maybe you’ve noticed it in your own poop. It’s totally normal and can give us helpful intel.

 

WHY DOES IT HAPPEN?

The red pigment in beets is called betanin. Most of us struggle breaking this compound down in our digestive tract, which is why it comes out in our stool a reddish/purple. Your body does absorb the healthy nutrients from the beet, but the color moves through. It is nothing to be worried about!

Fortunately for us, we can use this intact betanin to help us identify how long our food is taking to digest!

Why do we want this info? Because how our body digests our food tells us how our body is absorbing nutrients. It can tell us if we are eating enough fiber, if we are stressed, if we are eating too much processed food, and even if we have a pathogen.

Using the Beet Challenge to tell you if you are digesting in an efficient way can tell you if your gut is healthy. If it’s not, you can use that intel to make some changes.

 

HERE IS HOW THE BEET CHALLENGE WORKS~

 

1. Consume ½ to 1 full medium/large raw red beet for 3 days in a row. Write down the date you started on. *The key is that it is raw and red, not yellow or cooked. I throw mine in a smoothie or shred it up and add it to my salad.
2. Pay attention to your poop from the day you start the challenge for up to a week. Take note on when you first see a purple/red color in your stool.

If you see purple/red in your stool in the first 12-48 hours, and it is a healthy poop profile (not liquid or diarrhea) your digestion is working optimally. Woohoo!!!

If you don’t see purple/red in your stool until after 48 hours, you are slightly constipated. If you don’t see it until 4 days or after consuming the first beet, you are very constipated and we need to work on healing your digestive tract.

If your poop never turns a red/purplish color, your body may breakdown the betanin so this challenge won’t work for you.

Instead, you can try the same experiment using corn. Don’t eat corn for about 5 days before the experiment. Then, follow the same steps as above but use corn instead of beets. Look for the kernels in your poop and see when they show up. Again, you should see them 12-48 hours after consuming them.

 

RECIPES FOR THE BEET CHALLENGE

Remember, the beet needs to be raw. My favorite way to incorporate raw beets are in smoothies or shredded on salads. Here are a couple of recipes to tryout:

Beet Smoothie
Pink Chickpea Smashed Salad
Kohlrabi and Beet Salad w/ Yogurt and Dill

 

If you realize that you are taking longer than 48 hours to digest your food and need some more support, please reach out.

Some of us need to start at square one with healing our digestion by implementing my Elimination Diet Protocol. It’s the perfect tool to give our digestive tract and gut a rest, bring down the inflammation, and then slowly build up the healing bacteria.

I’m here if you would like additional support!

 

XO,

Kelsey