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Do Carrots Make Your Skin Glow?

Do Carrots Make Your Skin Glow

Carrots are known to have beneficial health effects such as being good for eye health, the digestive system, and improving the appearance of your skin.

Having glowing radiant skin is very attractive so here’s whether eating carrots makes your skin glow.

Carrots can make your skin glow according to Dr. Sam Bunting.

Carrots contain carotenoids which your body converts into retinoic acid which is great for the skin.

Harvard Medical School says carrots reduce fine lines and wrinkles because they increase collagen production.

The skin glowing effects that carrots cause only occur after eating a certain amount of carrots for a set period of time, and it’s easier to consume carrot juice than eat the carrots themselves.

So, in this article, I will explain exactly how many carrots or carrot juice you need to eat to make your skin glow, and if carrots make your skin turn orange or tan.

How Many Carrots Does It Take to Glow Your Skin?

How Many Carrots Does It Take to Glow Your Skin

Eating carrots every now and then is not enough to make your skin glow.

Carrots need to be consumed every day consistently to have this beneficial effect on your skin.

Here’s how many carrots and for how long you need to consume them to see the beneficial effects.

1 to 1.5 average-sized carrots are recommended to make your skin glow according to dermatologists.

An average carrot is 50g to 75g.

It’s recommended to eat ⅔ of a cup (85g or 3.0 oz) of carrots a day to make your skin glow.

Which is equivalent to 1 to 1.5 carrots.

This is very achievable.

You can grate a carrot or two and add it to a salad, or fry up one or two carrots in a stir fry.

Even carrot cake has 4 carrots in it.

So, you could eat a quarter of a carrot cake to get the daily carrot requirements to make your skin glow.

Why not.

Here’s a helpful table that shows how the percentage of the number of carrots required to make your skin glow:

Number of carrots Percentage of the amount required for the skin glowing effect
0.5 carrots 33% to 50%
1 carrot 67% to 100%
1.5 carrots 100% to 133%
2 carrots 143% to 200%

If it’s a struggle to eat a whole carrot or two include less carrot in each meal but spread out over different meals per day.

Carrots aren’t the most delicious vegetable to consume raw on their own.

But, most people find carrot juice very delicious.

Here’s a helpful list that shows how many carrots to use depending on how you’re going to consume them to get the skin glowing effects:

  • Carrot juice – 10% of a cup of carrot juice
  • Carrot cake – a quarter of an average carrot cake
  • Carrots used in a salad – 1 to 2 average-sized carrots
  • Fried carrots with stir fry – 1 to 2 average-sized carrots
  • Baked carrots – 1 to 2 average-sized carrots
  • Whole raw carrots – 1 to 2 average-sized carrots
  • Carrot sticks – 8 to 16 carrot sticks (1 carrot = 8 carrot sticks)

Here’s a really good video from Dr. Sam Bunting where she explains different foods that can make your skin glow:

Carrot juice also makes your skin glow – here’s how much to drink

It’s not fairly common knowledge that the juice of fruits and vegetables contains about 90% of the beneficial vitamins and minerals that the original fruit or vegetable has.

The main difference is they contain almost none of the fiber.

Virtually all of the fiber is removed during juicing and remains in the leftover pulp.

Therefore, you can drink carrot juice instead of eating carrots to get the beta-carotene in carrots that cause the skin glowing effects.

It takes about 10 medium-sized carrots to make 1 cup of carrot juice.

Therefore, you can get more than enough of the beta-carotene in carrots per day by drinking even half a cup of carrot juice.

Too much carrot juice can cause diarrhea because carrots contain a lot of vitamin C.

I explained this in detail in this article about whether carrots are good for constipation.

It also covers whether you can eat carrots or drink carrot juice if you have diarrhea.

Do Carrots Actually Make You Tan?

Do Carrots Actually Make You Tan

There are many myths about certain foods, I’ve found some turn out to be true while others not so much.

You may have heard that carrots can make you tan or make your skin turn orange.

Here’s whether there is any proof behind it based on the studies and the advice of dermatologists.

Carrots do not make you tan.

But, they can make your skin turn orange says dermatologist Melissa Piliang.

It’s rare for your skin to turn orange and is a condition known as carotenemia.

It’s caused by eating a narrow range of foods that are high in beta-carotene such as carrots.

The orange appearance that carrots cause can give you a more tanned look.

But, it’s more of an orangey tan rather than the golden-brown of a natural tan.

However, for this to happen you would need to restrict your diet in an unhealthy way according to the medical professionals (source).

There are many anecdotal stories online of people who have eaten a lot of carrots all at once.

Generally, it occurs if you eat a lot of carrots all at once.

Or, other foods high in beta-carotene such as:

  • Cantaloupe (rock melon)
  • Squash
  • Mangoes
  • Yams
  • Oranges
  • Apricots
  • Pumpkin
  • Sweet potatoes

And don’t eat any other foods or only one or two other types of foods.

Provided you eat a balanced diet that includes many different foods your skin won’t develop an orange tone to it.

But, could be a fun thing to try at least once.

There are many different ways to prepare carrots, you can cook them, eat them raw, or juice them.

When you cook them you can steam them, boil them, bake them, or fry them.

I explained how the nutrients in carrots change based on how they’re cooking in this article about the sugar content in carrots: raw vs cooked.

It shows a side-by-side comparison of the nutrients in carrots based on how they’re cooked.

How Many Carrots a Day to Get a Tan?

How Many Carrots a Day to Get a Tan

Although carrots won’t give you a brown tan they will still give your skin a natural glow.

And in extreme cases, they can give an orange tint to your skin.

This is dependent on eating a certain amount of carrots a day, here’s how many.

A minimum of 4 medium-sized carrots a day for two weeks will cause your skin to develop an orange/tan color on the low end.

Medical professionals say that you need 20 mg to 50 mg of beta-carotene a day for 2 weeks.

An average carrot contains 4mg of beta-carotene. 

The 4 medium-sized carrots is a minimum – which is also equivalent to half a cup of carrot juice.

To make sure you get this effect you should consume 8 to 10 medium-sized carrots.

This will give you about 50mg of beta-carotene.

Eating this many carrots will give you a significant amount of vitamin C. about 60% of the recommended daily intake.

So, if you do consume this amount of carrots monitor how you feel. Excessive vitamin C has a laxative effect and can give you diarrhea.

Especially if you consume other foods that are high in vitamin C such as citrus fruits.