Even a few weeks of eating fruit
and vegetables could improve your skin color, it is claimed.
University of St Andrews
researchers monitored diet in 35 people, finding more coloration in those eating
more greens.
Other research suggests these
changes may make you more attractive.
Other scientists said the study,
in the PLoS One journal, might not fully reflect the link between consumption
and appearance.
It has been known for some time
that certain yellow and red pigments called carotenoids found in many types of
fruit and vegetables, can have an effect on skin tone.
However it is not clear exactly
how much influence a normal healthy diet can have on this effect.
The St Andrews scientists recruited
35 students, mostly white, who were quizzed on their fruit and vegetable intake
over a six week period.
The volunteers were told not to
use sun beds, fake tan or make-up.
An instrument was used to analyze
their skin tone before, during and after the test period.
The results suggested that
changes in fruit and vegetable consumption might be related to changes in skin
tone, with more fruit and vegetables contributing to a deepening of natural red
and yellow skin coloration.
Earlier research by the team had
found links between the perceived attractiveness of faces and even subtle
changes in these skin tones.
"It is possible that even
smaller dietary changes are able to produce perceptible benefits to skin coloration,"
they wrote.
However, they did concede that
the effects on older people might be different, and that more research into
non-white volunteers would be needed.
Food preparation
Dr Glenys Jones, from the Medical
Research Council Human Nutrition Research laboratory at Cambridge University,
said that another issue was that food preparation techniques made a big
difference to how much of the carotenoids were available from food, and the
study did not take this into account.
She added: "With the vast
majority of the population not consuming the recommended five-a-day of fruits
and vegetables, this could be another way of encouraging people through our own
innate vanity to increase fruit and vegetable intake.
"After all fruits and
vegetables contain a wide range of nutrients that are good for not just for our
complexion, but for our overall health."
Dr Catherine Collins, a dietician
at St George's Hospital in London, said that although people heavily exposed to
sunlight were excluded from the study, all the areas of skin studied were those
exposed to daylight, and the effects of this could not be ruled out.
However, she echoed the point
that anything which encouraged people to eat more fruit and vegetables was a
good thing.
"For the rest of us
post-university people, it's another potential reason to carry on eating your
greens - and red/orange/yellow veggies as well.
"The grown-up way of serving
them cooked, or as part of an overall meal along with other foods, boosts
bio-availability of these useful phytochemicals, which may contribute to
overall health - as well as beauty!"
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