Forget the fake-and-bake method of tanning; if you really want to look like you've had fun in the sun, you should be eating healthy. A new study done at Britain's Bristol University has concluded that eating fresh fruit and vegetables five times a day for just one month will enhance the color of your skin -- if not make you take multiple trips to the loo.
Not only that, but researcher Ian Stephen came to the conclusion that "people always preferred the golden effect from the diet to the darker effect from the sun." The secret ingredient in that healthy glow? Carotenoids, a type of pigment found in plants.
The foods used in the study were a grab bag of such greens as spinach, kale and romaine lettuce, and ripe fruit including apricots, grapefruit, peaches and melons. (I usually get my melons by the handful, but they are already tanned.)
The researchers took pictures of the volunteers before they started the diet and after they'd finished the month of eating nothing else, then showed the head shots to strangers. The post-diet head shots consistently rated better.
"Most people don't know the effect of diet on skin tone," noted professor David Perrett of St. Andrews University, "we were very surprised by the results."
Will drinking five fruit-infused vodka cocktails have the same effect? After I've consumed that much, everyone else certainly looks more attractive.
