DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to frequent bowel movements, but when it comes to stool color, experts agree.

According to Dr. Mark Garkins, MD, chief of pediatric gastroenterology at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences, the most common color of stool is brown in all shades.

The Office of Science and Society at McGill University, Canada, said the brown color is the result of the breakdown of bilirubin, a pigment formed during the breakdown or breakdown of red blood cells in the liver, and the greenish-yellow fluid produced in bile (bile). In the liver, it contributes to the digestion of fats.

When bilirubin and bile are released into the small intestine during digestion, they eventually turn into brown stools.

This physiological process is the reason why green is the second most common color of stool.

Professor of Medicine in the Department of Gastroenterology at the University of California, San Diego, Dr. Rena Yadlapati says that green stool indicates that food is moving quickly through the digestive tract, so green bile juice is still in the stool. Its original shape and has not turned brown.

“Sometimes we see it with diarrhea or infections. But if the stool is heavy, if it’s green, it’s usually due to high dietary factors or some iron intake,” Delapati added.

Since stool color is affected by what we eat and drink, experts point out, a good rule of thumb for determining the cause of unusual stool colors is to remember what you ate or drank in the last 24 hours. Your doctor.

Garkins points out that eating a lot of tomato juice, beetroot or red gelatin, or drinking a lot of energy drinks with red dyes can cause red stools.

Some medications and nutritional supplements can affect stool color as a side effect.

But if what you ate isn’t the cause, here’s what you need to know — and when to see a doctor:

What is yellow or orange stool?

A yellow or orange stool color can indicate excess fat, especially if it appears greasy or oily, “some people may notice it’s associated with an unpleasant odor,” he explains.

The color may indicate malabsorption of fats due to celiac disease, pancreatic disease, or certain infections.

Celiac disease is an immune reaction to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye, and damages the lining of the small intestine.

Corkins points out that young children prefer vegetables with orange and yellow hues — such as carrots — more than others, so their stools may reflect these colors for this reason, insisting that “it’s not dangerous.”

The substance of black stool

What we always look for is a dark black color like tar, which is a warning sign, explained Telepathi.

Black stools are usually a sign of bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract, meaning the esophagus, stomach, and first part of the small intestine.

“When you lose blood from there, when the blood travels down the digestive tract, it turns black,” Delapathi said.

She continued, “It can lead to ulcers (or) inflammation that can lead to bleeding polyps. What we don’t see a lot of, but what we worry about is some type of stomach cancer.”

Iron supplements or diarrhea medications containing bismuth subsalicylate can cause black stools.

Means white or pale stools

If the stool is white or pale in color, it means that little bile is moving through your digestive system, according to Thalapathy.

“It could indicate a more serious cause, such as the liver, bile ducts or pancreas,” he added.

He pointed out that some drugs, like barium, for example, the milky white liquid that patients drink before X-rays of the upper digestive tract, can turn the color of the stool pale white.

Red stool material

Red stools are especially worrisome because “there may be some bleeding in the intestinal tract, such as the colon or rectum,” Dellapathy explained.

Gastroenterologists believe that the blood in the stool comes from the lower part of the colon or rectum, because the red color of the stool from blood indicates that the blood has not had time to change its color.

He added: “It can sometimes be in the form of hemorrhoids, which appear in the toilet with bright red blood, but not necessarily mixed with stool.”

Other causes include ulcers in the digestive tract caused by medications or conditions such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, Thalapathy noted.

Colon cancer is a less common cause, but it is still a cause for concern.