Snacking on baby carrots 3 days per week boosts skin carotenoids

Key takeaways:

• Skin carotenoid levels rose by 10.8% in adults who consumed baby carrots 3 days a week over 4 weeks.
• Taking a multivitamin supplement in addition to baby carrots further boosted skin carotenoid levels.

CHICAGO — Eating baby carrots as little as three times a week was associated with increased skin carotenoid levels in young adults, according to a study presented at NUTRITION.

“Carotenoids are a good measure of vegetable and fruit intake. Studies show that less than 10% of young adults meet vegetable and fruit intake recommendations,” Suresh Mathews, PhD, MPhil, MSc, FACN, FICS, a professor of nutrition and dietetics at Samford University, told Healio. “Thus, we wanted to explore whether a small change in diet could increase skin carotenoid levels.”

Higher skin carotenoid levels are tied to greater antioxidant protection and skin health, as well as lower risk for heart disease and some cancers, according to a press release about the study.

In the 4-week study, 60 young adults were assigned to either:

• a control group that received 100 g of Granny Smith apple slices 3 days a week;
• a group that received 100 g of baby carrots 3 days a week;
• a group that received a multivitamin-multimineral supplement containing beta carotene 5 days a week; or
• a group that received both baby carrots and the multivitamin.

Mathews and colleagues used a validated spectroscopy-based device known as the VeggieMeter to determine skin carotenoid levels in participants before and after the intervention.

“VeggieMeter uses reflective spectroscopy to monitor skin carotenoid accumulation in a noninvasive manner,” Mathews explained. “This technique offers the ability to monitor vegetable and fruit intake without obtaining a blood sample.”

The intervention groups receiving only baby carrots (2,505 µg) or the supplement (2,250 µg) had comparable weekly levels of provitamin A carotenoids, whereas the intervention group receiving both baby carrots and the supplement had more than double the weekly provitamin A carotenoids (4,755 µg).

The researchers found that skin carotenoid scores, compared with preintervention levels, increased by:

• 10.8% in the group receiving baby carrots; and
• 21.6% in the group receiving baby carrots and the multivitamin supplement.

“Surprisingly, the combination of baby carrots and beta-carotene containing multivitamin mineral supplement increased carotenoid levels even higher than baby carrots alone,” Mathews said.

Skin carotenoid scores did not change in the supplement-only group or the control group.

Because skin carotenoid levels did not change based on the supplement alone, there could be differences in how carotenoids are absorbed based on the source, the release noted.

“Encouraging increased intake of yellow, orange and dark green vegetables would contribute to increasing carotenoid levels,” Mathews said.

Because the study period was only 4 weeks, Mathews said “it would be of interest to monitor skin carotenoid accumulation following a longer intervention, such as 12 weeks.”

“Further, effects of other carotenoid-rich foods, such as sweet potato and green leafy vegetables, would be of interest,” he said.

References:

• Trying to eat more vegetables? Snacking on carrots might help. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1048971. Published June 30, 2024. Accessed June 27, 2024.
• Simmons M, et al. Effect of a four-week intervention using baby carrots or multivitamin supplements on skin-carotenoid scores in young adults. Presented at: NUTRITION; June 29-July 2, 2024