A group of vegetables might give the skin a healthy, golden glow because of their antioxidant properties and orange pigment.
Carotenoids are a class of nutrients that typically give foods a rich orange color: Beta-carotene in carrots is an example.
Videos have been circulating on social media describing the benefits of these foods for healthy, glowing, tanned skin, suggesting that the orange pigments in these foods may lead to orange-looking skin.
For example, @gregogallagher made a video to his 1.5 million Instagram followers saying that carrots and sweet potatoes might make people look more attractive because the carotenoids can increase skin yellowness.
Similarly, @isabelle.lux made a TikTok video, which has more than 300,000 likes, advising another content creator to “just eat three large carrots a day” for a natural tan.
More recently, @notjimmymaio said that “eating carrots can actually change the tone of your skin” in a video with nearly 20,000 shares on TikTok.
But nutritionist …