Yes, this is actually true. Eat enough carrots (or sweet potatoes, pumpkins, or butternut squash) and your skin will gradually take on an orange or yellowish tint. It's called carotenemia, and while it sounds alarming, it's completely harmless.

Why Your Skin Turns Orange

Carrots are packed with beta-carotene, the pigment that gives them their orange color. When you eat them, your body converts some of this beta-carotene into vitamin A. But if you're consuming large amounts regularly, the excess beta-carotene starts accumulating in your bloodstream and eventually in your skin.

The discoloration typically shows up first in areas where your skin is thickest or where you have more fat tissue:

Palms of your hands
Soles of your feet
Around your nose
Knuckles and elbows

How Much Is Too Much?

You'd need to eat a lot of carrots to turn orange. We're talking about consuming several large carrots every day for weeks or months. Most reported cases involve people drinking multiple glasses of fresh carrot juice daily or following extreme juice cleanses.

One documented case involved a woman who drank so much carrot juice that doctors initially suspected jaundice. Her skin had turned noticeably yellow, but blood tests revealed it was just carotenemia—her liver was fine.

Not the Same as Jaundice

Here's an important distinction: carotenemia doesn't affect the whites of your eyes. Jaundice, which indicates liver problems, turns both your skin and your eyes yellow. If you notice your eyes changing color, that's a reason to see a doctor immediately. But if only your skin looks orange and you've been on a carrot binge? You're probably fine.

The Good News

Carotenemia is temporary and completely reversible. Once you cut back on beta-carotene-rich foods, the orange tint gradually fades over a few weeks or months. There's no treatment needed because it's not actually a medical problem—just a cosmetic side effect of your diet.

It's also worth noting that turning orange from carrots is vastly preferable to vitamin A toxicity from supplements. Your body regulates how much beta-carotene it converts to vitamin A, so you can't overdose on vitamin A from eating vegetables alone. The worst thing that happens is you temporarily look like you have a questionable spray tan.

Should You Worry?

Not at all. Carotenemia is actually a sign that you're eating plenty of vegetables, which is generally a good thing. Beta-carotene is an antioxidant that supports eye health and immune function. Just maybe don't go overboard with the carrot juice cleanses.

If you do notice your skin turning orange, simply dial back the carrots and other orange vegetables. Your natural skin tone will return on its own, and you'll have a great story about that time you accidentally became a human pumpkin.

Related Tags