Does Eating Carrots Make You Orange? The Weird Science of Carotenemia Explained

You probably heard it on the playground. Some kid claimed their cousin turned bright orange because they ate too many carrots. It sounds like a total urban legend, right? Something parents tell kids to get them to eat their vegetables. But here’s the thing: it’s actually true.

Yes. Really.

If you go hard on the carrots—we’re talking bags of baby carrots every single day—your skin will eventually take on a distinct, pumpkin-like hue. Doctors call this carotenemia. It isn’t a myth, and it isn't jaundice. It’s just your body’s way of dealing with a massive influx of beta-carotene.

Why Beta-Carotene Moves Through Your Skin

Carrots are packed with beta-carotene. This is an organic, strongly colored red-orange pigment found in plants and fruits. It’s a provitamin, meaning your body takes that pigment and converts it into Vitamin A, which is essential for your vision, immune system, and skin health.

But your body has a "speed limit" for this conversion.

When you saturate your system with way more beta-carotene than your liver can process into Vitamin A, the excess pigment doesn't just disappear. It stays in the bloodstream. Because beta-carotene is fat-soluble, it hitches a ride to the outermost layers of the skin. It likes to settle where the skin is thickest or where you sweat the most.

Have you ever looked at the palms of your hands or the soles of your feet and noticed they look a bit... sun-kissed? Even in the dead of winter? That’s usually where carotenemia shows up first. The stratum corneum, that top layer of skin, is thick there, so the orange pigment builds up and becomes visible to the naked eye.

📖 Related: How to Use Kegel Balls: What Most People Get Wrong About Pelvic Floor Training

How Many Carrots Are We Talking About?

You won’t turn orange from a side of glazed carrots at Sunday dinner. Not even close.

To actually trigger a visible color change, you generally need to consume around 20 to 50 milligrams of beta-carotene every day for several weeks. To put that in perspective, one medium-sized carrot has about 4 milligrams. So, you’d need to eat about ten carrots every day for three weeks straight.

It sounds like a lot. But for people on restrictive diets, juice cleanses, or those who just really, really love snacking on raw veggies, it happens more often than you’d think. There’s a famous case study in the Journal of Dermatology involving a woman who drank so much carrot juice her skin turned a deep "golden-orange." She was fine, honestly. She just looked like she’d had a very specific, very localized tanning bed accident.

It’s Not Just Carrots

The name "carotenemia" makes it sound like carrots are the only culprit. They aren't. Anything high in carotenoids can cause the shift.

• Sweet potatoes: These are massive offenders.
• Pumpkins: Obviously.
• Squash: Pretty much any winter variety.
• Dark leafy greens: Wait, what? Yes. Spinach and kale are loaded with beta-carotene. You just can't see the orange because the green chlorophyll masks it. If you eat enough kale, you won't turn green—you'll turn orange.
• Papayas and Cantaloupe: Tropical fruit fans aren't safe either.

There was a period where "tan pills" were a big trend. These weren't actual tanning supplements; they were just high-dose canthaxanthin (a relative of beta-carotene) pills. People would take them hoping for a bronze glow, but they often ended up looking more like a highlighter pen.

Carotenemia vs. Jaundice: How to Tell the Difference

This is the most important part. If you or your child starts looking yellow or orange, the first instinct is often panic. "Is it liver failure?"

👉 See also: Fruits that are good to lose weight: What you’re actually missing

The easiest way to tell the difference is to look at the eyes.

In jaundice, which is caused by a buildup of bilirubin in the blood due to liver issues, the sclera (the white part of the eyes) will turn yellow. In carotenemia, the eyes stay perfectly white. The orange color is strictly limited to the skin, specifically the palms, soles, and the "nasolabial folds"—those lines that run from your nose to the corners of your mouth.

If the eyes are white, it’s probably just the diet. If the whites of the eyes are yellowing, that’s a medical emergency.

Is It Dangerous?

Technically, carotenemia is considered a "benign condition." It’s harmless. It doesn't mean you have Vitamin A toxicity, because the body naturally slows down the conversion of beta-carotene to Vitamin A as levels rise.

However, it can be a sign of other things. For example, people with hypothyroidism or diabetes sometimes develop carotenemia even if they aren't eating mountains of carrots. This is because their bodies are less efficient at converting carotenoids into Vitamin A. If you haven't changed your diet but you're turning orange, it's worth a trip to the doctor just to check the metabolism.

The "Orange Baby" Phenomenon

Pediatricians see this all the time. New parents start introducing solids, and what do they give the baby? Smashed carrots. Smashed sweet potatoes. Smashed squash.

✨ Don't miss: Resistance Bands Workout: Why Your Gym Memberships Are Feeling Extra Expensive Lately

Babies have very little surface area. If you feed a 15-pound human a steady diet of orange mush, they are going to turn orange very quickly. It’s almost a rite of passage for some parents to take their "glowing" baby to the clinic only to be told to lay off the sweet potato for a week.

How to Get Your Normal Skin Tone Back

The "cure" is boring: stop eating so many carrots.

But don't expect it to happen overnight. Because the pigment is stored in the fat and the skin layers, it takes time to wash out. It can take several weeks, or even months, for the skin to return to its original color after you cut back on the carotenoids.

You don't have to quit veggies entirely. Just vary the colors. Throw in some cauliflower, some onions, some beets. Your liver will thank you for the variety, and your skin will stop reflecting the produce aisle.

Actionable Next Steps if You're Turning Orange

If you’ve noticed a tint to your skin and suspect your diet is the cause, follow these steps:

1. The Eye Test: Check the whites of your eyes in natural light. If they are white, breathe a sigh of relief. If they are yellow, call a doctor immediately.
2. Audit Your Veggies: Look at your daily intake. Are you drinking carrot juice? Are you eating a sweet potato every night? Are you taking a multivitamin with high beta-carotene?
3. Diversify the Plate: Swap out orange veggies for white, purple, or red ones for the next three weeks. Think red bell peppers, eggplant, or radishes.
4. Check Your Palms: Monitor the color of your palms over the next 14 days. The fading starts there first.
5. Talk to a Doc if it Persists: If the color doesn't fade after a month of dietary changes, or if you feel unusually tired or cold, ask for a thyroid panel. Sometimes the skin color change is the first visible hint of an underlying metabolic slowdown.

Eating a carrot is great for you. Eating the whole bag? Maybe just do that once in a while.