Does eating carrots actually help you tan?
 

Just about to go on a tanning rampage here in Costa Rica and have heard this but have not been able to confirm it. I know many products have carrot chemicals :D in em but am not sure if actually eating em also will help me out.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

Slim in CR

LOL

Never heard THAT claim before. You could eat 'em up anyway and try it out. ;) Good luck with getting that golden tan.

Sposed to help your night-time eyesight anyway.

wonder if there is any kind of danger from eating too many of em?

If you eat too many, you turn orange. But I'm sure it will blend well with your tan :D

if you really want to get tan. take some antibiotics. my brother was on some and became really sensitive to sunlight.

but never heard anything about the carrots tho

not really true. Carrots are probably my favourite vegetable so i eat them everyday and quite a bit as well. And i am still really pale. I don't really worry about it too much, but i always hear people say i need a tan or am really pale, so i get a little self-conscious about it :(

As for carrots themselves, they are high in vitamin A (beta-carrotean (sp?), whcih the body converts to vitamin A) which is good for your skin and also eyesight. SO the skin thing could have something to do with it?

EDIT:
i quickly googled it and found this article about carrots. Seems it does have something about skin protection against ultra-violent light?

http://www.femail.com.au/carrots.htm

->
Vitamin A is vital for healthy skin and helps form disease resistant mucous membranes. This is why the humble carrot is so important for the protection of the lungs and the entire function of the respiratory system. Vitamin A is also important for night vision.

In most cases we are told that cooking vegetables decreases the nutritional value and that most vegetables have the maximum amount of vitamins when they are raw. However in the case of carrots, cooking them actually helps the body to absorb the beta-carotene 4-5 times more by breaking down their touch cell walls.

Darker older carrots are also more nutritional than baby new carrots and cooking them with a small amount of oil or eating them with a meal that contains a small amount of fat will also aid in the absorption of the antioxidant Beta-carotene. Where possible choose organically grown carrots so to avoid potentially high levels of pesticide residue.

In more than 40 published studies researching the relationship between the consumption of carrots and the occurrence of cancers, 75% of the studies showed a definite reduction in cancer risk when a diet contained a high quantity of the vegetable. Carrots are also believed to offer some protection against ultraviolet radiation, therefore viewed as an excellent safeguard against wrinkles, sun damage and skin ageing.

The other antioxidants contained in Carrots are Vitamin C and Vitamin E making them essential for those who suffer with arterial diseases.

Traditional "old wives tails" has stuck with the suggestion that the use of pureed carrot is of use for ailments such as diarrhoea and is particularly good for children and infants as a good form of medicine.
Some Naturopaths recommend a two-day fast on nothing else other than fresh carrot juice and mineral water supposedly to assist the stimulation of the liver and to help relieve symptoms of jaundice.

So, there you have it. Carrots are wonderful vegetables that are needed by all of us. To tuck into some, peel them and eat them crunchy or cook them up and make some soup! But essentially, make them a part of your diet!


So, eat carrots, they're good for you :D

I love carrots, and I've eaten a shit load of em in my time. But my eyesight at night is shit. Oh well. I do love me some carrots though!

This is true... My when my niece was little she had carrots for about a week straight and she was givin off an orange glow... My idiot sister couldn't figure out why!

Carrots are the only veg i cant handle for some reason.

I love the tiny ones! Raw, not so much cooked.

Eating carrots in mass quantities will indeed make you turn orange. My iguana alternates between orange and bright green, depending on how many carrots he gets.

According to age old tales told by my mother, back in the day when we didn't care all that much about skin cancer, they used to use baby oil to deepen their tans. We're talking chocolate brown, and that's from pale asian-computer-nerd-type skin.
I'm going to guess you'll need an even coat, else you'll look somewhat like a splotchy chocolate cow, so bring a friend with a steady hand.

Carrots do make your skin orangier if you eat LOTS of em.
I would not recommend the antibiotic route because the phototoxicity of them can render you severely sunburned. I have been there and it is really no fun.
I wore socks on my hands for days in the middle of summer on a paddling trip and my hands burned intensely the entire time.

Enough carotene will give your skin an orange tinge. To get that much from carrots you would have to eat an amazing amount of them. The result is certainly not worth it. It makes you look sick, not healthy.

If you want to make your skin orange from carrots, juice a couple of pounds every day. This will not add any protection to your skin, however.

My aunt only eats tons of natural vegetables, and tons of carrots and she is actually orange. I guess she does mind, so it is cool I guess.

Seriously, she is orange. Like not slightly orange, but noticeably. She gets a lot of looks when she goes out :)

hmmm like a sexy orange or a oh my God that freak is orange?

I've been tanning for a many years now (real and fake) and have yet to notice any different results from any sort of food. I don't think that much of anything can improve your tan cept oils, and tanning lotions and stuff...but good luck with that, hopefully I'm right and you don't turn orange or anything...

the latter!

Don't know about the tanning, but I did have a weird habit a few years ago. For some reason I started putting carrot sticks in my Corona's instead of limes. I have no idea why, but I was feeling odd at a party once, tried it and kept it going for about a year. Didn't really add anything to the beer, but it did make people look at me funny :)

Beta-carotene in large quantities will turn you the color of a carrot. It is also found in sweet potatoes. The look is more like jaundice than a tan. Some "health-food" stores used to market the B-carotene in a capsule, and after a month your eyes, skin and urine would be quite orange, but it would never be confused with a tan.