The nutritionist reveals vegetables that can give your skin a golden glow

A group of vegetables could give the skin a healthy golden glow due to its antioxidant properties and orange pigment.

Carotenoids are a class of nutrients that typically give foods their rich orange color—the beta-carotene in carrots is one example.

Videos have circulated on social media describing the benefits of these foods for healthy, glowing, tanned skin, suggesting that the orange pigments in these foods can result in orange-looking skin.

For example, @gregogallagher made a video to his 1.5 million Instagram followers saying that carrots and sweet potatoes can make people look more attractive because carotenoids can increase the yellowness of the skin.

Similarly, @isabelle.lux made a TikTok video, which has over 300,000 likes, advising another content creator to “just eat three large carrots a day” to get a natural tan.

More recently, @notjimmymaio said that “eating carrots can change your skin tone” in a video with nearly 20,000 shares on TikTok.

But nutritionist Kate Taylor, founder of Eat Drink Think Nutrition, a nutritional therapy service, said Newsweek that the brightness of the carotenoids is unlikely due only to the orange pigment of these vegetables.

“I believe that consistently and consistently eating a diet that contains fruits and vegetables that contain colorful carotenoids can contribute to healthy-looking skin because they are also anti-inflammatory antioxidants,” she said.

“Exacerbated inflammation would detract from the glow of the skin. As an eczema sufferer, I know that for sure. So it’s not just the carotenoids, but the complexity of carotenoid-rich foods as a whole,” Taylor said.

Foods rich in carotenoids include carrots, squash, pumpkin, sweet potato, papaya, tomatoes, spinach and kale, so not all carotenoids are orange. Some forms are converted to vitamin A in the body.

Eating excessive amounts of carotenoids can contribute to yellow or orange skin, a condition known as carotenemia. And there is some evidence that smaller amounts of carotenoids may have a similar, more moderate effect.

For example, a 2017 paper found that beta-carotene improved facial color, attractiveness, and perceived health, but not actual health.

A 2011 study concluded that carotenoid-derived skin coloration in Caucasian faces was perceived as an indicator of health.

Taylor said Newsweek that there is some evidence to support the idea that some carotenoids, particularly lycopene, found in tomatoes, and astaxanthin, found in shellfish and seaweed, can support the health and brightness of the skin in general.

“The other important factor to consider about carotenoid-rich foods and skin health is that carotenoid-rich foods tend to be whole foods, rich in complex carbohydrates,” he said.

Complex carbohydrates, he explained, are longer chains of sugar molecules that have a more consistent impact on blood sugar than refined carbohydrates, in part because of their fiber content.

“A diet high in refined sugars, trans fats and ultra-processed foods increases the risk of developing and accumulating advanced glycation end products,” he said.

“These are when sugars bind to proteins or fats in the blood and manifest as highly inflammatory sticky compounds, which exacerbate and accelerate skin aging,” Taylor said. And that would leave a healthy glow.

Taylor also cautioned against taking skin supplements without professional advice on their suitability for the individual.

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References

Foo, YZ, Rhodes, G., Simmons, LW (2017). The carotenoid beta-carotene improves facial color, attractiveness, and perceived health, but not actual health, in humans, Behavioral ecology 28(2). https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arw188

Stephen, ID, Coetzee, V., Perrett, DI (2011). Carotenoid and melanin pigment coloration affect perceived human health, Evolution and human behavior 32(3). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.09.003

Perrett, DI, Talamas, SN, Cairns, P., Henderson, AJ (2020). Skin color cues to human health: carotenoids, aerobic fitness, and body fat, Psychology of Borders 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00392