Only 9% of Americans consume the recommended 2.5 cups of vegetables daily. But a good way to get started is to snack on baby carrots thrice a week. This vegetable gets its vibrant orange color from a pigment known as carotenoids and according to a recent study of 60 young adults, regularly eating baby carrots will boost the levels of carotenoids in your skin, which is linked to increased antioxidant protection and a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer.
“Previous studies have demonstrated that skin carotenoid levels can be increased by consuming three times the recommended serving of fruits and vegetables every day for three weeks,” Mary Harper Simmons, a nutrition science student at Samford University said in a press release. “Our findings suggest that a small, simple dietary modification — incorporating baby carrots as a snack — can significantly increase skin carotenoid accumulation.”
The researchers recruited 60 young adults and divided them into groups. The participants were put through a four-week-long intervention where they had to regularly eat apple slices, at least 100 grams of baby carrots, take a beta carotene multivitamin or a combination of the supplement and baby carrots. Simmons and team used a spectroscopy instrument known as a “VeggieMeter” to measure each study participant’s skin carotenoid levels, both before the study began and after the four-week-long diet intervention ended.
The researchers observed that the group who took the beta carotene multivitamin and ate 100 grams or half a cup of baby carrots at least thrice a week had 21.6% higher skin carotenoid levels than they did before the intervention began. At the same time, the participants in the group who only added baby carrots to their diet had skin carotenoid scores that were 10.8% higher than before. However, those who only added sliced apples to their diet or were in the group who only took the multivitamin did not see any changes in their skin carotenoid levels.
In a press release, Simmons explained: “We found that the combination of baby carrots and a multivitamin supplement that contains beta carotene can have an interactive effect on skin carotenoid accumulation. To get a beneficial effect, people should choose a multivitamin that contains beta carotene, and remember to eat baby carrots at least three times a week.”
A few other vegetables and fruits that also produce carotenoids that give them rich yellow, red, orange, or green colors are tomatoes, mangoes, oranges, bell peppers, watermelons, spinach, kale, yams, and cantaloupes.
In a 2022 study published in the journal Trends in Food Science & Technology, researchers wrote: “The main sources of carotenoid are fruits, vegetables, algae, insects and fungi. Carotenoids contain oxygen, including lutein and astaxanthin. These two kinds of carotenoids especially lutein, are the predominant carotenoid in the prevention of severe diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease, and cataracts, and they also perform excellent antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties.”
Simmons presented her study’s findings at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meeting, Nutrition 2024, held in Chicago on July 2, 2024.
