ArticlePloS one2012
You are what you eat: within-subject increases in fruit and vegetable consumption confer beneficial skin-color changes.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Criterion-Related Validity of Spectroscopy-Based Skin Carotenoid Measurements as a Proxy for Fruit and Vegetable Intake: A Systematic Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2020Pooled it
- Tomato Phytonutrients Balance UV Response: Results from a Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study.Skin pharmacology and physiology · 2019Trial
- The value of facial attractiveness for encouraging fruit and vegetable consumption: analyses from a randomized controlled trial.BMC public health · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Examining Demographic Variables Associated with Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Skin Yellowness.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Skin Colour Does Not Define Ethnicity: Quantifying Variation and Overlap Across Diverse Populations.Skin research and technology : official journal of International Society for Bioengineering and the Skin (ISBS) [and] International Society for Digital Imaging of Skin (ISDIS) [and] International Society for Skin Imaging (ISSI) · 2026Article
- Insights into Tanning Biology and Tanning Products.The Journal of clinical and aesthetic dermatology · 2026Review
- Biological Roles of Melanin and Natural Product-Derived Approaches for Its Modulation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Efficacy of an Oral Skincare Supplement on Skin Aging: A 12-Week Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial.Dermatology and therapy · 2025Article
- "First Bite": An intervention to increase children's vegetable consumption in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services in areas of high socioeconomic disadvantage - a cluster randomized controlled trial protocol.Nutrition and health · 2025Article
- Non-Invasive Spectroscopic Determination of the Skin and Blood Carotenoids of Term and Preterm Infants in the First Month of Life and the Influence of Free Radical-Mediated Diseases.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Stereotypes bias social class perception from faces: The roles of race, gender, affect, and attractiveness.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2024Article
- The Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis: Theoretical foundations and implications for public health.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2024Article
- Functional Foods in Dermatology.Dermatology practical & conceptual · 2023Review
- Article
- Effects of oral intake fruit or fruit extract on skin aging in healthy adults: a systematic review and Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
- Influence of the nutritional status on facial morphology in young Japanese women.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Advances in Biomedical Functions of Natural Whitening Substances in the Treatment of Skin Pigmentation Diseases.Pharmaceutics · 2022Review
- Carotenoids in Human SkinIn Vivo: Antioxidant and Photo-Protectant Role against External and Internal Stressors.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Your face looks the same as before, only prettier: The facial skin homogeneity effects on face change detection and facial attractiveness perception.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFruit and vegetable consumption and ingestion of carotenoids have been found to be associated with human skin-color (yellowness) in a recent cross-sectional study. This carotenoid-based coloration contributes beneficially to the appearance of health in humans and is held to be a sexually selected cue of condition in other species. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL
findingsHere we investigate the effects of fruit and vegetable consumption on skin-color longitudinally to determine the magnitude and duration of diet change required to change skin-color perceptibly. Diet and skin-color were recorded at baseline and after three and six weeks, in a group of 35 individuals who were without makeup, self-tanning agents and/or recent intensive UV exposure. Six-week changes in fruit and vegetable consumption were significantly correlated with changes in skin redness and yellowness over this period, and diet-linked skin reflectance changes were significantly associated with the spectral absorption of carotenoids and not melanin. We also used psychophysical methods to investigate the minimum color change required to confer perceptibly healthier and more attractive skin-coloration. Modest dietary changes are required to enhance apparent health (2.91 portions per day) and attractiveness (3.30 portions).
conclusionsIncreased fruit and vegetable consumption confers measurable and perceptibly beneficial effects on Caucasian skin appearance within six weeks. This effect could potentially be used as a motivational tool in dietary intervention.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.