The study, that was headed by Dr. Ian Stephen, showed that with five additional portions of vegetables per day to ones diet, that over the course of 2 months participants skin had a much healthier and radiant glow. The research isn’t anything too revolutionary, but it went something like this:
1) Get willing participants
2) Have half of them double their fruit/vegetables.
3) Observe how Carotenoids (which are found in high volumes in RED vegetables and fruits) affect the skin.
4) Get participants a tan.
5) Ask strangers to judge them. (best part)
If the research could be photographed it would look something like this:
The face in the middle shows the woman's natural color. The face on the left shows the effect of sun tanning, while the face on the right shows the effect of eating more Carotenoids. Participants thought the Carotenoid color looked healthier.
What are carotenoids though? (I know your about to Google it…)
Carotenoids are responsible for the red coloring in fruits and vegetables such as carrots or tomatoes. They are also an important antioxidant that helps soaks up all of the crap-substances that our body produces from the stresses of everyday life, called free-radicals, thus enhancing our immune and reproductive systems!
Dr. Ian’s research concluded when he asked group of people which face they found more attractive (though the specifics of how he kept this unbiased is secret) and, if you couldn’t guess, people preferred the face with all the Carotenoid color. If we look to nature, this makes perfect sense, as animals will generally choose the brighter and more radiant males/females to mate with, but what does this mean for humans??
Well, tanning salons will go the way of the Dodo as we are all going to be headed to that nice Mexican on the corner of the highway with the vegetable stand/ceramic religious statues cart [though soon to be mart] and we’ll buy ourselves some produce so that we can all get laid…just say’n.
- Cannoli
NOTE: This study was for only white people a.k.a Caucasians, though similar preferences have been recorded in the Black culture, preferring mates with skin yellowness.
Original Story: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2011/january/lookinggoodongreens.aspx