Does Carrot Juice Make You Tan?

Photo credit: Jacques Brinon/AP/Corbis

Wildly popular French fashion designer Isabel Marant, who is showing her spring/summer 2015 ready-to-wear collection in Paris tomorrow, shared her beauty and style tips in the October issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Famous for not wearing makeup or dying her hair, Marant revealed that she relies on carrot juice for a healthy glow.

“It’s true,” she told the editors. “I’ve noticed that I tan easily without being in the sun when I drink a glass of carrot juice.”

There is, in fact, science behind Marant’s ritual: A diet rich in certain fruits and vegetables can boost a pale complexion. Back in 2010, Dr. Ian Stephen, an expert in the psychology of face perception, was researching the connection between a healthy appearance and skin tone. He and his team found that consuming produce rich in carotene (the substance that gives an orange-y hue to carrots, tomatoes, cantaloupe and other edibles) resulted in a golden visage for certain participants. The findings were published in the Evolution & Human Behavior journal.

“Most people think the best way to improve skin tone is to get a suntan, but our research shows that eating lots of fruit and vegetables is actually more effective,” said Dr. Stephen, now at Macquarie University in Sydney.

Maybe it’s time to invest in that juicer.