9 replies to this topic

[Matt]

I've been eatin a lot of sweet potatoes and carrots lately, Everyone seems to be commenting that I've turned orange [mellow] How long does this take to fade after lowing consumption of beta carotene?

[Shepard]

From my understanding, it is pretty much an individual thing on the exact timing of something like this. I would limit Vitamin A intake until it goes away. I would say it should go away somewhere between 3 weeks to 3 months at the latest, depending on the severity of the saturation.

[mark_shewmaker]

When it has happened to me, (from drinking delicious fresh carrot juice overly-liberally even though LEF Mix already contains a good bit of beta carotene), the effect would fade enough in a few days that folks would no longer *start* to notice it on their own.

However, once I (or my friends) noticed it, it would take much longer before it seemed to be back down to background-noise level. I never timed it, but it was over a week.

One little trap: If you realize you're turning orange, and you think it might be noticable, and thus your face flushes from being embarassed...then it's more likely to be noticed, and then you're more likely to blush more or more often. Awkward.

However, after it's happened to you a few times, you learn to..notice coming onto the transition point of just-barely-noticable to everyone-can-notice-it, basically noticing when your skin starts to have that tiniest bit of orange tinge to it that means that you're at your limit.

(I've long thought it would be pretty interesting if some study were to find that being a bright orange color from beta carotene had serious health or anti-aging benefits--you could imagine carrot juice and megadose beta carotene supplements becoming popular, as well as having a bright orange tint suddenly becoming very fashionable for light-skinned folks.)

[Matt]

People been noticing a slight orange tint in my skin a few weeks ago. I didn't lower consumption of sweet potatoes, which are extremely high in Beta carotene! Ohwell... I can live with it for now lol

[Infernity]

Lol, I had a while I turned orange too.

-Infernity

[xanadu]

It might become a fad. I can see kids competing to see who turns the brightest shade or orange and who turns completely red. You could claim to be a native american.

[Matt]

Just seen my grandparents today and they think I have some liver disease or something because of my skin colour!.. But I had liver function test just a few weeks ago and came back normal and starting turning orange before the test. I'm gonna keep eating my sweet potatoes and carrots though!

[jimmy kustes]

If I eat enough beta carotene can I improve my eyesight permanently like a cheap form of LASIK? Are there any foods that do that?

[hallucinogen]

Well, good thing you didn't turn yellow:p

[Matt]

I think that excessive beta carotene can create a jaundise look, yellow/orange color but I think that there is a difference in that the eyes usually turn yellow when there are liver problems.