Opinion: The Benefits Of Vegetable Consumption

One summer day when I was a little kid, I was sitting on our back deck, eating a wedge of watermelon and seeing how far I could spit the seeds. It was one of my favorite snacks/rituals. (Some things never change.) My older brother sauntered past, then snapped his head around to face me, locking eyes. “Wait,” he said gravely, “you didn’t swallow a seed, did you?” Oh no, I thought, and only sputtered in reply. “They can grow up inside you,” he intoned, then added with that air of superiority combined with kinship that only older siblings can employ: “You know that, don’t you?”

I didn’t sleep well that night, but managed to make it through that summer. Not too many years later, I was in a similar situation, eating a carrot. (No seeds, thankfully.) My older sister happened by and, knowing my fondness for carrots, casually mentioned that if I ate too many my skin would turn orange. Hah, I thought to myself, who does she think she’s dealing with, some sort of rube? I dismissed her, and that was that. Until about a dozen years later, that is, during my sophomore year of college.

Now free from the pathetic freshmen-filled dorms, I was living in a large house with a bunch of other guys, most of them relatively normal. Except there was one guy who was convinced he was going to achieve physical superiority in part through a rigorous diet. He went through one phase where he was eating massive amounts of raw fruits and vegetables.
He then morphed into a juicing phase, downing a huge glass of carrot juice each morning before heading off to class. You can probably guess what happened. Yes, I saw it with my own eyes; m,j over time he really did begin turning orange. He then consulted with an experienced juicer, so to speak, who advised him to cut the pure carrot juice with that from celery and other vegetables. Gradually he returned to a paler hue.

6-10 A Day!

I was reminded of that the other day, when I saw a study performed at St. Andrews University in Scotland that found that eating more fruits and vegetables can make you look more attractive. The researchers used light sensors in finding that increased vegetable intake boosts the skin’s red and yellow hues. Makes sense, think of the people who seek tanning beds for a more ruddy complexion.

Eating an average of 2.9 more fruits and vegetables a day made the consumers look more healthy, and adding 3.3 more per day enhanced their attractiveness. The vegetables with the most dramatic effect were those containing lycopene, such as tomatoes and watermelon(!), and beta-carotene, such as squash and —wait for it — carrots!

The Moral of This Column: Eating more vegetables not only won’t hurt you, it can make you healthier and more attractive. But all things in moderation.