Maintaining a sun-kissed tan takes time.
But with seven kids between them, best friends Bethany Ferguson and Whit Frink are too busy to tan or go to the tanning bed like they used to.
Still, Frink, of Atlanta, insists she looks healthier with a little color. “As I get older, my skin becomes more translucent and my veins show…I just like to have a healthy glow,” she told the Post.
Enter the solution: Carrotmaxxing. And shrimp maxing. And tomatomaxing.
Not with food, but with a small pill that contains compounds that, if ingested frequently enough, have the power to change the color of the skin.
These compounds are called carotenoids, a type of natural yellow, orange, or red pigment.
Take beta-carotene, an orange pigment found in carrots, sweet potatoes and cantaloupe. Or astaxanthin, a red-orange that gives shrimp and salmon their characteristic pink hue. And lycopene, which turns tomatoes red.
Frink and Ferguson get all three pigments in supplement form from a brand called Zephyrian, which claims the color combination provides balance.
“Astaxanthin provides red undertones, lycopene provides surface warmth and a dose of beta-carotene adds golden balance. The result is a credible tone, not a costume,” explains the Finnish nutricosmetics company.
Moms love that it’s a once-a-day pill. “It’s extremely simple,” Frink said. “Just take it with some sort of fat-soluble food. So in the morning I have avocado toast or an egg, then I take the pill.”
Additionally, Ferguson says there were no side effects and both enjoyed the results.
Bronze Bites, Bondi Gummies and Vecos are just some of the many other brands that make so-called “tanning pills.”
Some people go even further by getting the pigments directly from the source.
“I eat one, two, maybe three carrots a day,” wellness creator Lee Tilghman Pollis said on social media. “I think they’re better raw.”
She insists her carrot routine gives her “the best skin of my life and I’ll die on this hill.”
Influencer Isabelle (@isabelle.lux) went viral for her own “carrot tan” on TikTok, telling her followers: “I’ve been doing this for years. I don’t pretend to tan anymore, I don’t go out in the daytime in the sun.”
Men are also involved. Casey (@caseynooz) encouraged others to carrotmax, showing off her “arsenal” consisting of a bag of carrots, along with beta-carotene, astaxanthin and lycopene supplements.
So… does it really work?
Yes, eating too many carrots really does turn your skin orange – it’s called carotenemia.
“Carotenoids are pigments (that are) absorbed by the digestive tract, circulate in the bloodstream and can accumulate in the skin, especially in its outermost layer,” Viktoryia Kazlouskaya, dermatologist and owner of Dermatology Circle, told the Post.
It would take about 20 to 50 mg of beta-carotene per day for a few weeks to get the effect, said Sophia Deahl, registered dietitian and director of The Nourished Method. That’s about three to eight large carrots per day, or one to two glasses of carrot juice.
An important distinction: Carotenemia is not a “true tan” in which melanocytes in the skin produce pigment in response to the sun. Carotenemia is simply a “pigment buildup,” Kazlouskaya explained.
Likewise, eating an excessive amount of lycopene-rich tomatoes turns your skin an orange-red color, a condition called lycopenemia.
Although astaxanthin is also a carotenoid, like lycopene and beta-carotene, there is no known phenomenon that will turn you pink from eating too much shrimp, which is rich in astaxanthin.
A risky business?
Carotenemia is generally harmless and disappears as soon as carrotmaxxer slows its consumption.
Perhaps the biggest problem with eating too much carrots is “digestive symptoms…including gas, bloating, stomach upset or loose stools,” the Post said. “This mainly comes from consuming more fiber than your gut is used to, especially if you increase it quickly.”
Tomato lycopenemia is also generally harmless and reversible.
Supplements, however, are a different story.
“A nutrient from a plant does not automatically mean that any dose is safe,” Deahl said.
Although our bodies need beta-carotene to make vitamin A, it is a small amount that does not require you to make a huge effort to eat carotenoid-rich foods. Overloading the body with beta-carotene supplements could cause toxicity
“In high enough amounts, beta-carotene can even shift from being an antioxidant to being a pro-oxidant, which can cause inflammation,” Deahl said. “These risks occurred with supplements, not food. This is why no major health organization recommends beta-carotene supplements to the general public.”
Deahl cautions that with any vitamin, more is not always better. People should only take supplements to fill a gap, and she recommends checking for overlapping ingredients if you’re taking more than one.
Additionally, supplements do not need to be approved by the FDA for safety or effectiveness, nor are their labels checked for accuracy before they hit the market.
A given ingredient list may seem clear, “but it doesn’t tell you if the dose is correct or if the product has been tested,” Deahl said.
“My take: Look for third-party testing from USP, NSF, or ConsumerLab. Otherwise, you’re just taking the brand’s word for it.”
But… is it better than tanning?
Despite decades of warnings about the risk of skin cancer – and premature aging – many people still enjoy lying around and tanning.
So, are carrots (and shrimp and tomatoes) safer alternatives?
“I am in favor of avoiding UV tanning, but I would not recommend taking high-dose supplements or deliberately overeating carotenoid-rich foods to change the color of your skin,” Kazlouskaya said.
“The effect may be uneven, difficult to control and the color may not look attractive with a more orange hue.”
Kazlouskaya and Deahl both say: opt for self-tanner instead. And if you really want to increase your beta-carotene intake, eat the fruit or vegetable instead of taking a pill.
As for Ferguson and Frink, they continued to take supplements throughout the summer and fall, although they admit they haven’t been as consistent as they would like.
“The real test will be once our summer color fades, will we still see a glow in winter? »
Gn tech
