Eating a lot of fruits and vegetables can produce a skin glow that’s better looking than a tan, according to studies done in the U.K.
The organic pigments called carotenoids found in colored foods such as carrots, apricots, mangoes and spinach can help produce a healthy skin glow. The researchers wanted to see how that glow was perceived by others in terms of attractiveness when compared to skin that’s tan.
The study, recently published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, consisted of three separate experiments.
In the first, a group of 60 participants were shown digital images of 27 faces that had been created specifically for testing. Two versions of each face were created. One was color manipulated to show high-carotenoid pigmentation, while the other displayed low-carotenoid pigmentation. Participants were then asked to rate which face color they deemed most attractive.
The team found that 86 percent of participants rated the high-carotenoid version of each face as more attractive than the low-carotenoid version.
A similar experiment was conducted with a new group of 60 participants, except they were shown faces that were either high or low in melanin pigmentation or tan. In this case, 78.5 percent of participants rated the high-melanin faces as more attractive.
In the third experiment involving another new group of 60 participants, the same procedure was followed, but subjects were asked to rate whether high-melanin or high-carotenoid faces were more attractive. The results showed that almost 76 percent of the participants deemed the high-carotenoid faces more attractive than the high-melanin faces.
A study done in 2012 found that found that when participants ate just two extra portions of fruit or vegetables a day for six weeks, it had a noticeable effect on their skin tone.