Why Is My Skin Orange? And Other Weird Food Side Effects
By Emily Alford, The Daily Meal, 11 November 2014.
By Emily Alford, The Daily Meal, 11 November 2014.
Anyone who has ever over eaten at an all-you-can-eat buffet, pigged out on late-night grub from your local 7-11, or treated yourself to questionable cart food knows that food can do strange things to the body.
But even beyond causing us to feel triumphant about clearing out the sweet-and-sour chicken tray or remorseful about that fourth egg roll, our bodies’ relationship to food really is strange and spectacular.
For example, did you know that just a few weeks of healthy eating can actually alter the way your skin looks? Researchers in Scotland did a study that compared subjects’ diets to their skin tones and found the folks who ate healthier really did get a healthier glow on their skin than those who didn’t.
People who ate the most produce turned slightly yellower than those who subsided mostly on burgers and fries, and that tiny change in hue translated to a better overall appearance of healthfulness.
And it wasn’t just the researchers who thought so. In a second part of the experiment, people were asked to look at pictures slightly digitally altered with a yellowish tint that mimicked that of the veggie lovers’ skin and a second photo of the same subject with a pizza pallor. People overwhelmingly chose the yellow-hued photos as healthier and more attractive.
Turns out that the same pigments that make food look good enough to eat make us look younger, happier, and healthier as well, lending credence to the old adage, “You are what you eat.”
But the food we take into our bodies can affect more than our waistlines and skin. Food can alter our moods, it can help our bodies adjust to temperatures, and it can even trick our taste buds. We’ve compiled the following list of some of the worst and weirdest things that food can do to the human body. Read on at your own risk, though; it might just make you suspicious of your salad.
1. Soy Can Decrease Sperm Count
A recent fertility study found that men who frequently ate foods high in soy had a lower (though still normal) sperm count than men who rarely or never ate soy foods.
2. Carrots Can Turn Your Skin Orange
Your grandma was right; the vitamin A in carrots really does help your vision. However, slamming back too much carrot juice or taking more beta-carotene supplements than the daily recommended allowance may turn your skin an orangey-yellow (more intense than the slight, healthy-looking yellow tint of a balanced diet), a condition called carotenosis.
3. And So Can Tomatoes
The lycopene that give tomatoes their glowing red skin will give you glowing orange skin if you eat too many. Even if you’re not eating crazy amounts of tomatoes, just eating a couple a day (or downing a lot of V8) can actually slightly alter your skin town.
4. Trans Fats Make You Mean
A UC San Diego study found links between diets high in trans fats, like those found in margarine or shortenings, and irritability along with aggressive behaviour. Yikes.
5. Undercooked Mushrooms Can Cause a Rash
Undercooking shiitake mushrooms leaves a starch-like substance in the mushrooms called lentinan that can sometimes cause a pretty unsightly rash all over the bodies of people who are sensitive to the protein. Fully cooking shiitakes will prevent the reaction.
6. Nutmeg Can Cause Hallucinations
We’re not talking about the dash of nutmeg in your Christmas eggnog. You’d have to eat four to eight tablespoons of powdered nutmeg to experience hallucinations. It will also probably make you violently ill, so you’re better off trusting us on this one.
7. Sugar Gives You Wrinkles
That second scoop of ice cream could be showing up on your face. A diet high in sugar causes glycation, which sets off a hormonal reaction resulting in dry, inelastic skin.
8. Miracle Fruit Can (Temporarily) Change Your Taste Buds
This berry (Synsepalum dulcificum) causes sour foods, like lemons, to temporarily taste sweet. The effect lasts until the flavour swapping protein in the fruit is washed away by salvia, which usually takes about an hour.
9. Red Meat Can Cause Anaphylaxis After a Tick Bite
Individuals bitten by the Lone Star Tick (a parasite found in the West, Midwest, and South) sometimes develop anaphylaxis after eating red meat. What’s even scarier is that many people test negative for the allergy on a skin prick test even after they’ve become allergic to red meat. Be careful hiking in Texas if you’re a fan of steak!
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