Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Carrots and plums boost attractiveness, claim experts

Eating healthy foods such as carrots and plums makes people more attractive, scientists have found.

Researchers at St Andrews University took part in a study which found that certain fruits and vegetables produce a yellow skin tone, which is generally perceived to be healthy and attractive.

As part of the study, 40 volunteers rated Scottish Caucasian faces for healthiness and attractiveness.

The research, conducted jointly with Bristol University, also established for the first time that yellow pigments, or carotenoids, from foods such as carrots and plums played a key role in giving skin a healthy yellow tinge.

The results will be published in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour in March.

Ian Stephen, one of the scientists involved in the project, said the link between yellowness and carotenoids could be used to encourage young people to eat more fruit and vegetables, especially as it took just two months of increased consumption to produce visible results.

He told the Grocer: "Telling people they might have a heart attack in 40 years' time if they don't eat more healthily is one thing. What we can do is say, 'This is what you could look in a couple of months if you increased your fruit and veg intake'."

via Carrots and plums boost attractiveness, claim experts | Dundee and Tayside | STV News.

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