12 replies to this topic

[Ben]

Reading that great blog which is the ergolog, I came across a post on an interesting study on the attractiveness of carotenoid vs melanin pigmentation, something that has been discussed in this section of the forum quite a bit.

Basically, the researchers showed participants photos of the opposite sex on a computer. Through software manipulation, they could then adjust the images to make them more yellow (the colour that comes from carotinoid pigmentation) or more brown (i.e. a tan). Almost every time they made the images more yellow. The effect was even repeated when the study was conducted using the faces of black people.

The researchers postulate that yellowness is an indicator of health (and ergo, by extension, attractiveness) as it indicates the person has a good diet; however, a tan is not as it reduces the skin's ability to absorb vitamin-D.

I'm feeling much better about the carotenoid "tan" I have at the moment .



http://www.sciencedi...cf&searchtype=a

http://www.ergo-log....arotenoids.html

Edited by maxwatt, 25 February 2011 - 10:46 AM.

[JohnD60]

I have no doubt that the study is flawed in some way, and probably multiple ways. Just one possible flaw: The yellow color from carotenoid pigmentation is not distributed evenly, but the coloration via computer enhancement is even, thus a disparity exists between the simulation and reality. Before reading this board I had no idea how much c%@# gets published in scientific and medical journals.

Edited by JohnD60, 24 February 2011 - 04:33 PM.

[JLL]

Look at the pictures in the articles on this experiment. The computer-generated tans look completely artificial. Whose suntan looks like they smeared shit on their face?

[Matt]

but the effect is not just seen in humans is it? So it could be true.

[Ben]

Look at the pictures in the articles on this experiment. The computer-generated tans look completely artificial. Whose suntan looks like they smeared shit on their face?

Hahahhahaha. They're not that bad. The faces with a tan and no carotenoid pigmentation are going to look a bit weird as it's likely a rare thing in reality.

The yellow color from carotenoid pigmentation is not distributed evenly, but the coloration via computer enhancement is even, thus a disparity exists between the simulation and reality.

I find that if I eat a moderate amount of carotenoids, the pigmentation is evenly spread and just makes my skin look healthy, if, albeit, absolutely, a touch more yellow.

[Matt]

When my intake of caretenoids has been really high I was asked a few times if I was wearing fake tan, even foundation or something lol. I don't think that my skin is that good... hmmm. People said that I have a lot more colour now than before so it seems to be a good thing. ;p

[nupi]

So how much caretinoids do I need to get some effect? All this SPF50/PPD 5 sunscreen makes me eerily white skinned even in the tropical place I currently am... And it already has some very light brown tint, so its not that the cream itself makes me look white.

Edited by nupi, 27 February 2011 - 08:24 AM.

[rollo]

When I was still taking 20mg of lutein and also drinking a green smoothie containing 1 cup of kale and 1 cup of baby spinach, amongst other things, my skin seemed to turn slightly orange. I don't think I liked it and I'm not sure if people liked it but it did get noticed. I stopped taking lutein for that reason but I may experiment and start taking it again just to see if I get more positive reactions.

Interesting title Ben, no where, in the links posted, did I see it say 'tan brown not attractive.' Did I miss something or was that a Freudian slip?

[Ben]

When I was still taking 20mg of lutein and also drinking a green smoothie containing 1 cup of kale and 1 cup of baby spinach, amongst other things, my skin seemed to turn slightly orange. I don't think I liked it and I'm not sure if people liked it but it did get noticed. I stopped taking lutein for that reason but I may experiment and start taking it again just to see if I get more positive reactions.

Interesting title Ben, no where, in the links posted, did I see it say 'tan brown not attractive.' Did I miss something or was that a Freudian slip?

From the abstract:

"Study 3 shows that, to maximize apparent facial health, participants choose to increase empirically derived skin carotenoid coloration more than melanin coloration in the skin portions of color-calibrated face photographs."

I indeed exaggerated in the title.

[yoyo]

Interesting is that this is what fake tans take advantage of. Obviously its possible to go overboard...

[jughead]

How much carotenoid are we talking here? Should I get carotonemia and turn orange? Holistically speaking with some wild extrapolation on the matter: if the color induced IS good then perhaps a spectrum of these carotenoids would produce the best looking aesthetic and the best UV and immune protection as well? Not only UV but perhaps other forms of seasonal protection, heat, mass rains, virus/bacteria/insects etc. Peak seasonal fruits and vegetables were eaten in mass quantities at the peak of ripeness and the excess were preserved/ canned/fermented somehow. They would perhaps be literally falling off the trees everywhere and gorged upon until exhausted, much fresher and varied in composition. You wouldn't have single variety crops that are extremely vulnerable to disease but a wide spectrum local to each area. People too would follow this trend. Obviously we are quite disconnected in many of these ways from the process.
(HOW DO I INDENT) Plants and animals in the summer are on high metabolic drive due to the sun and it makes sense they would as a by-product produce chemicals that prevent or reduce the damage they need to take in massive energy spike (UV for algae) intakes before winter. The further up or down the chain, the more specific chemicals you will get. This could easily lead to some vivid effects. Watermelon colored humans! Have there been mention in the carotenoid supplementation studies on skin pigment changes? (lutein/lycopene/zeazanthin/astaxanthin etc) Will I turn flamingo pink if I supplement astaxanthin? (purported to be perhaps the single best anti-uv compound, its seems to be created for this purpose) And when you connect that with grass/insect fed, range fed etc animals, we could easily obtain more efficient ways of getting mass quantities of these compounds that these animals gorge upon.How much of the benefit from grass fed is also due to that? I can easily envision this sort of natural ecological flow and on a meta scale what "local" food and goods should really be.

Why would asians have the best skin? Many are quite pale.