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Healthy glow 'officially attractive'

By Lucy Halfhead on Thursday 19 November 2009

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Marie Claire News: Health Foods

Eating fruit and vegetables can make you look more attractive to the opposite sex, because men love the 'rosy glow' they create, according to scientists at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

In a study, volunteers were asked which skin tone made people appear most healthy and desirable. They discovered that Caucasian men and women both identified a certain 'golden glow' as the most desirable complexion. But the tone they preferred was the 'rosy' look created by eating lots of fruit and veg' - and not the suntanned look.

Dr Ian Stephen, who conducted the study, said good examples of this healthy, attractive look include Hollywood stars Keira Knightly and TV Presenter Myleene Klass.

Dr Stephen said: 'Most previous work on faces has focussed on the shape of the face or the texture of the skin, but one of the most variable characteristics of the face is skin colour.

'In the west we often think that sun tanning is the best way to improve the colour of your skin, but our research suggests that living a healthy lifestyle with a good diet might actually be better.

Dr Stephen said that skin slightly flushed with blood and full of oxygen suggested a strong heart and lungs, which supported the study's findings that rosier skin appeared healthy.

He said smokers and people with diabetes or heart disease had fewer blood vessels in their skin, and so their skin would appear less rosy.

Dr Stephen added: 'People ought to aim to eat the government guideline five fruit or veg' a day - although other countries such as Japan do recommend up to ten per day.'

Of course, if you wake up one morning and find there's no fruit or veg in the fridge, panic not: we find a quick sweep of pink blusher creates much the same effect.

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Thursday 19 November 2009