If some influencers on TikTok are to be believed, eating a handful of carrots a day will give you a tan. An account called isabelle.lux posted last week to claim that eating three carrots each day would make you orange. And the fad is spreading like wildfire. @isabelle.lux #stitch with @Isabelle ⚡️ Lux ?CARROT TAN 101 take Astaxanthin (i get mine on amazon) #carrottan #selftan #selftanroutine Tanning hack routine Carrot tan before and after results But like most things promoted by beauty grifters on the internet, all is not what it seems. Two dieticians wrote in The Conversation on 27 September that, no, you probably won't get that golden tan just from eating a couple of root vegetables. They are Lauren Ball, professor of community health and wellbeing at The University of Queensland, and Emily Burch, a dietitian, researcher and lecturer, Southern Cross University. Here’s what they had to say. What is Carotene? The reason carrots are orange is because they contain beta-carotene, a natural pigment. When you eat it, your gut breaks it down into vitamin A, which helps vision, reproduction, immunity and growth. If you eat too much beta-carotene, it stops breaking it down into vitamin A. Then your poo goes orange. (No, really.) The excess beta-carotene gets stored in the liver and fat tissue, write Ball and Burch, and is excreted through your poo, or removed via sweat glands in the outer layer of the skin. This is when your skin goes orange, or “tanned”. There’s even a medical name for the condition – carotenoderma – which sees the orange pigmentation concentrated in the palms of your hands, the soles of your feet and the smile lines near your nose. So how many carrots do you need? “A few days of high carrot intake will unlikely result in a change in skin colour,” Bell and Burch write. Moreover, “no high quality trials have been conducted to test the relationship between number of carrots eaten per day and skin colour changes or other outcomes”. One published case report found that for a person who ate around 3kg of carrots per week (about seven large carrots a day) found the colour of their skin started to change. Other experts have suggest you would need to eat at least ten carrots per day, for at least a few weeks, for colour changes to occur. The experts added: “Most people would find this carrot intake challenging.” Is that even good for you? And while they continue that myths around beta-carotene being toxic for humans don’t quite stack up, there is a potential danger. “There is, however, some evidence that taking high-dose beta-carotene supplements (20 mg per day or more) increases lung cancer risk in people who smoke cigarettes or used to smoke,” they wrote. “This may be due to changes to chemical signalling pathways.” The Cancer Council therefore recommends avoiding high doses of beta-carotene supplements (more than 20 mg per day). But the good news is that if you really want to go a strange orange hue, beta-carotene is also found in parsley, basil, chives, chilli powder and sun-dried tomatoes. So as far as real fruit and veg is concerned, you might as well crack on. Read the full article in The Conversation here. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

By Noele Illien and Kirstin Ridley ZURICH (Reuters) -Credit Suisse has reached an 11th-hour out-of-court settlement with Mozambique over the

The Jesuits say a famous artist priest has been definitively expelled from the religious order for sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing women

After firing head coach Doc Rivers, the Philadelphia 76ers are set to bring in former NBA championship-winning coach Nick Nurse for an interview.It's not often you see NBA teams part ways with big-name head coaches, but that is exactly what's happening in 2023.While there were limi...

Because of a procedural change in how the U.S. government processes some green cards, faith communities across the country may lose thousands of leaders and workers

An 11th-hour tentative contract agreement reached between Mack Trucks and the United Auto Workers union late Sunday narrowly averted a strike by 3,900 employees at the company.

House conservatives in a group known as the Freedom Caucus have unveiled a list of demands they want included in a stopgap spending measure to keep the federal government running after the end of September

Harry Kane is set to complete his move to Bayern Munich today and could even make his debut for the Bundesliga champions in the German Super Cup final, while Chelsea and Liverpool continue to battle for a deal for Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo. After a dramatic few hours on Friday that saw the England captain waiting in a car for the green light to make the trip to Munich, Kane finally signed the paperwork on a £120m deal at 2am German time on Saturday morning. Kane will wear the number-nine shirt for Bayern and could even play in the German Super Cup against RB Leipzig this afternoon, after Tottenham and chairman Daniel Levy agreed to a total package of £120m with add-ons, with £105m guaranteed, and £86m up front. Meanwhile, Chelsea were still negotiating with Brighton for Caicedo into the early hours of Saturday morning, but the ongoing delay could yet work in Liverpool’s favour in a multi-layered saga that has also seen both clubs also compete for Southampton’s Romeo Lavia. We’ll have all the latest transfer news from the two deal as the Premier League kicks off, with champions Manchester City defeating Burnley 3-0 in the opening game on Friday night. Read More Harry Kane set to complete Bayern move after late Tottenham request Liverpool offered hope in battle with Chelsea over Moises Caicedo transfer Fantasy Premier League: 30 players you must consider for 2023/24 season

China will likely disappoint those hoping the government will roll out massive stimulus to shore up the weakening

Matt Damon and Jimmy Kimmel's fake feud began in 2005 during the third season of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' and has spanned over two decades

Toyota Motor Corp. is selling socially conscious debt denominated in dollars for the first time in two years

17-year-old defender Ishe Samuels-Smith revealed he was 'shocked' by his move to Chelsea from Everton.