Cosmetics companies everywhere will hate to hear this simple way to make yourself more attractive, but an intriguing experiment finds that the color of your skin affects how healthy, and therefore attractive, you look to others.
And the desired color comes more from healthy living than cosmetics, suntans or outpatient procedures.
The research into what people find attractive suggests that skin color affects our perception of health, and that we pick up on subtle changes in color, the most appealing hues are those that reflect a healthy lifestyle.
So, eating your fruits and veggies is going to have you looking better than a sun kissed glow or a facial.
Earlier work on perceptions of attractiveness has focused on face shape or skin texture, yet one of the most variable characteristics of the face is skin color.
The experiment involved 54 Caucasian subjects (men and women) who were asked to change the skin color of faces on a computer screen to make them look as healthy as possible.
People tended to up the rosiness, yellowness and brightness to improve the look of the skin tone.
These experiments support the idea that people consistently wanted faces that were slim, light in color and with either red or yellow hues.
This held across all races and skin colors.
An attractive skin color was considered to be slightly red, slightly increased in yellowness and lighter than normal.
It's thought that this skin tone comes from diet and exercise, eating right affects the chemical composition of the skin, being active increases blood flow, leaving skin flushed with blood and oxygen.
The study showed that subjects preferred faces that they considered to be "healthy".
People consistently disliked the pasty, unhealthy looking faces.
Those who smoke, or have health conditions like diabetes or heart disease naturally have fewer blood vessels in their skin, so the color would be less rosy...
less healthy looking.
Suntans, despite the long held belief otherwise, really don't give you a healthy "glow" though they do affect the melanin in the skin.
The sun causes this pigment to darken and get more yellow.
Study participants did apply yellows, but consistently wanted to lighten the skin...
not make it darker.
The take home message from this is that healthy lifestyle, not anything you buy or a procedure you pay for, is the key to being considered attractive.
Lots of fruits and veggies in the diet are the only natural way to make your skin lighter and more yellow in tone, enabling you to make yourself more attractive.
What's more, you give your body a healthy variety of powerful antioxidants that absorb dangerous compounds that are produced as the body fights disease.
The team is also investigating how the results of their work might be used to create more effective public health campaigns.
Imagine how much more powerful it would be to see your own face, and then a version that would come from making a few changes in the way you eat...
how active you are.