Why isn't urine the color of what you eat or drink?

Answer 1

Bascically, the urine that exits your body is made up (mostly) by water, and a toxin called urea. Your kidneys filter the blood to get rid of the dangerous substances from food, and this collective toxins is the aforementioned urea. It is then mixed with water for expulsion. All the food in your body is the same colour, it is all broken down by acids and absorbed into the blood, which is cleaned and then the toxins expelled. Basically your urine isn't leftover food like excrement, its just small bits of it that are not good for you. TheWilly

AnswerThis is because urine is a substance manufactured in the kidneys, and always has a similar composition no matter what you drink or eat. Occasionally some foodstuff in sufficient quantity can slightly change urine's colour, as can some medical conditions (such as porphyria which colours it purple) but in normal conditions uring contains the same substances, the only difference being in the concentration of the urine. If you drink a great deal, then the soluble materials (eg the malt etc in beer) are absorbed by the intestines whilst some of the excess water which the body does not need finds its way into the bloodstream and then to the kidneys making the urine more dilute. In warm weather when you sweat a lot, losing water, or when you have not drunk anything for a long while, the urine is darker in colour, as it is more concentrated, but it still contains the same substances. Normal urine consists mostly of water, but there are other substances that the body does not need, and which may be toxic to the body if they remained, such as nitrogenous waste. One such substance is urea, a chemical that is produced by the kidneys, which contains nitrogen in a form that, if it remained in the body would slowly poison the body. If the kidneys stop working then the only option is dialysis, where the blood is filtered to remove this nitrogenous waste. Failure to do this would result in death through poisoning, so your kidneys provide a vital function not only in keeping you healthy, but actually in keeping you alive.