Eating your greens will make you more attractive than getting a sun tan, Scottish university researchers said on Monday.
Scientists at the University of St Andrews have found that the colour of your skin affects how healthy - and attractive - you appear, and that eating fruit and vegetables is better than a suntan as a way to achieve the most desirable complexion.
Using specialist computer software, a total of 54 Caucasian participants of both sexes were asked to manipulate the skin colour of male and female Caucasian faces to make them look as healthy as possible. They chose to increase the rosiness, yellowness and brightness of the skin - shown in the picture above right.
Skin that is slightly flushed with blood and full of oxygen suggests a strong heart and lungs, supporting the study’s findings that rosier skin appeared healthy. Smokers and people with diabetes or heart disease have fewer blood vessels in their skin, and so skin would appear less rosy.
The preference for more golden or "yellow-toned" skin as healthier might be explained by the carotenoid pigments that we get from the fruit and vegetables in our diet. The antioxidants soak up dangerous compounds produced as the body combats disease and could even help prevent cancer.
They are the same dietary pigments that brightly coloured birds and fish use to display their health and attract mates, and the researchers think that similar biological mechanisms may be at work in humans.
Melanin, the pigment that causes the tan colour when you expose your skin to the sun, makes the skin darker and more yellow, but participants in the study chose to make skin lighter and more yellow to make it look healthier.
Dr Ian Stephen, who worked on the project, which has been published in the International Journal of Primatology, said: "In the West we often think that sun tanning is the best way to improve the colour of your skin, but our research suggests that living a healthy lifestyle with a good diet might actually be better."
"Most previous work on faces has focussed on the shape of the face or the texture of the skin, but one of the most variable characteristics of the face is skin colour.
"We knew from our previous work that people who have more blood and more oxygen colour in their skins looked healthy, and so we decided to see what other colours affect health perceptions. This has given us some clues as to what other skin pigments may relate to a healthy appearance."
Professor David Perrett, head of the Perception Lab at the University of St Andrews, where the research took place, said: "What we eat and not just how much we eat appears to be important for a healthy appearance. The only natural way in which we can make our skin lighter and more yellow is to eat a more healthy diet high in fruit and vegetables."
