« Dual Fuel | Home | You’ll catch your Death! »
Orange you a little yellow?
By Linda | March 3, 2008
I knew a girl once who’s skin turned an orangey-yellow color because she had eaten so many carrots. I kid you not! This relatively benign condition is called Carotenemia. My friend’s yellow-orange skin hue was a tell-tale sign of a beta carotene overdose resulting from her over-zealous carrot consumption. Beta carotene, along with other plant pigments generally called carotenes, are found in carrots and other colorful vegetables and fruits and are usually a boost to your health - but like everything in life, only in moderation.
Too many carrots?
Commercial Food Engineers sometimes utilize a similar phenomenon to give their products more market appeal.
Perdue Farms feeds its chickens a specially designed nutritional formula that incorporates Xanthrophyll, a naturally occuring plant compound which can be found in Marigold petals. This nutritionally inert food additive imparts the distinctive golden skin color that is the hallmark of Perdue Brand Chicken.
Topics: Animal Kingdom, Food Science, Health & the Human Body, Nature, Science Factoids, Technology |
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
