[eatthishomie]

We all want to get tan as it's a sign of health and an active lifestyle, but we also know that too much exposure to the sun is the path to premature aging and skin cancer, particularly if you are fair skinned.

Thankfully there is a better way - through diet. A lot of colorful vegetables and other foods have carotenoids in them which are essentially dyes that give them their color. Eat enough carotenoid-rich vegetables and you will start to take on that color as well, to a point. A carotenoid tan looks healthier, more organic, and more aesthetically pleasing than a sun tan (scientific studies objectively comparing the two have proven this) and it can be maintained year round without damaging skin. Examples of foods rich in carotenoids are carrots, kale, eggs, salmon, spinach, apricots, strawberries, and sweet potatoes.

I've been drinking a glass of carrot juice a day for the last couple months and I'm already noticing that my skin has a bit more of a golden hue. I have been eating a lot of the above items on a regular basis and my skin is better and more tan overall compared to five years ago when my diet was mostly pizza, chips, soda, and other junk - I was ghostly pale then.

Don't bother with tanning beds - foods that you should mostly be eating anyway if you're living a healthy lifestyle can give you a better-looking tan.

Further reading below - these sites also helped me fill in a lot of info I didn't already know for this post.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carotenoid

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/articl...untan.html

http://www.scienceofrelationships.com/ho...noids.html

https://www.sharecare.com/health/nutriti...arotenoids