Why aren’t all animal proteins the same color? Ex-Why aren’t chicken, pork and beef all red? What determines a proteins color?
In: Biology
Fun fact, almost all colors in the human body are the result of one of two families of molecules: melanin and heme. Melanin is what makes skin tan and produces eye and hair color. Heme is what makes blood and muscles red, and its breakdown products produce the green, yellow, and brown colors of bile, urine, and poop (biliverdin & bilirubin, urobilin, and stercobilin respectively).
The molecules themselves produce color by being able to absorb certain kinds of light. Heme absorbs blue light, leaving only red. Melanin absorbs most colors of light, making it look dark or brown. Different tissues have different amounts of these molecules, which makes them have different colors.
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