Reason #5 to eat Green: Get a golden tan without the sun.
Start eating more cantaloupe, apricots, carrots, peppers and spinach, which can give a golden glow to the skin, according to new findings.
Carotenoids – organic pigments found in many plants – are what impart the look of a perfect tan, according to Bristol University experimental psychologist Ian Stephen.
Two specific pigments affect the yellowness of fair skin: melanin (associated with UV exposure) and carotenoids. Stephen looked at whether the carotenoid called betacarotene – found in produce that’s naturally green and orange – can actually change skin tone. It appears that switching to a produce-rich diet can make the skin look more attractive in just a month.
When he asked volunteers to look at “before and after” photos of Caucasians who consumed a diet rich in orange and green fruits and vegetables, he found that the volunteers liked the golden glow that the skin took on when a produce-rich diet was eaten.
“We found people always preferred the golden effect from diet to the darker effect from the sun,” Stephen told the Sunday Times.
There might also be an evolutionary reason why the gentle yellow tone linked to carotenoids is preferable to the darker effect associated with melanin.
Carotenoids are “powerful antioxidants that soak up dangerous compounds produced when the body combats diseases,” according to the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
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