Foods for Tanning: How to Speed Up your Tan - Carli (2024)

As summer arrives, who wouldn’t want to flaunt an enviable tan in a short time and without too much effort? Certainly nothing works miracles, you always need a good dose of patience and commitment, but perhaps not everyone knows that food can make a valuable contribution.

The best known of all is certainly beta-carotene. It is the precursor of vitamin A that stimulates the production of melanin and that helps minimize the aggressive action of sunlight on the skin.

Another special ally is certainly lycopene, an antioxidant substance that does not directly intervene in favor of the complexion of the skin but rather on its health. Lycopene, in fact, counteracts and prevents skin aging and protects it from the harmful action of sunlight.

To get a quality tan, skin elasticity also plays an essential role, and this is where Omega 3 and 6 and vitamin E come into play. Their antioxidant properties fight cellular aging and help stimulate skin regeneration.

Last but not least, water taken by drinking but also by eating certain foods that are rich in it, such as fruit and vegetables, is essential to maintain skin hydration and replenish fluid losses.

These nutrients, along with water, are therefore essential in helping us with our tan and showing off an even complexion. Equally important, however, in order to keep your skin healthy, is the regular application of a sunscreen that can protect the skin from UVB rays before any exposure to the sun.

In the top list of foods to eat to get a tan, carrots definitely stand out for their fame. These vegetables, as suggested by their color, contain a lot of beta-carotene: 100 grams of carrot pulp provides about 1200 micrograms of vitamin A or equivalent amounts of carotenes, corresponding to about twice the daily requirement for an adult between 30 and 59 years of age. This vegetable is therefore perfect to help our tan, not to mention that carrots are also rich in water and minerals. In short, they are an undisputed ally of our summer diet.

Although they have a lower amount of beta-carotene per 100 grams, spinach and radish are also great tanning foods. In fact, despite being little known, both of these vegetables contain 600 micrograms of vitamin A or equivalent amounts of carotenes per 100 grams, corresponding to about the recommended daily dose of vitamin A! True, these are not typically summer vegetables, but they are easily available even in the hottest months and very versatile to cook. Moreover, to get a great result for the summer it is good to start a little in advance to eat foods with a higher intake of beta-carotene, so that the body has a chance to incorporate the change in our diet in favor of foods with a high vitamin A content.

Also contributing to making spinach an even more interesting food to include in our summer diet is lutein, the vitamin that helps protect our eyes from sun damage.

What cannot be missing from our summer tables or beach lunches? A big rice or pasta salad enriched with spinach, radish and carrots. Carrots can also be an alternative, healthy snack for our figure and our tan!

Among the foods that nature offers in the summer season, we find peppers, tomatoes, cherries and watermelons, and it's no coincidence! These foods are effective in speeding up our tan and helping us to achieve it.

Peppers, in all their types and colors, contain a quantity of vitamin A that varies from 100 to 150 micrograms per 100 grams, corresponding to about 30% of the average daily requirement for an adult. This makes them a tan-promoting vegetable, as well as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory, thanks to the presence of vitamin C in their pulp.

Tomatoes also provide the same amount of vitamin A as peppers and are rich in lycopene which, as we have seen, is a functional antioxidant that protects the skin from the damage that sun exposure may cause. Green light then for all kinds of tomato recipes: raw, cooked, stuffed!

Not only red vegetables, but also some red fruits, such as watermelon and cherries, are to be preferred in a pro-tan diet. Both, in fact, provide from 20 to 40 micrograms of vitamin A per 100 grams of product, which is about 6% of the recommended daily dose of vitamin A for an adult aged between 30 and 59 years. Moreover, thanks to their sugary taste, eating them is certainly no sacrifice. In particular, eating cherries introduces carotenoids and minerals, which are essential to protect against sunburn, while watermelon, being very rich in water, also promotes the hydration necessary to keep the skin toned.

Also tomatoes, as well as carrots, if eaten raw, encourage the intake of vitamin C, whereas, when cooked, they make lycopene, allied to tanning, more available. The secret, therefore, is always in the balance and variety in the use of these vegetables in cooking.

In addition to cherries, watermelon and other red fruits, peaches, apricots and melons are also ideal tanning foods. They are seasonal fruits and, as you might guess from their orange color, they are rich in beta-carotene.

Apricots are the ones that, within this trio, provide a greater amount of vitamin A: we are talking about 350-500 micrograms per 100 grams of pulp, i.e. about 80% of the recommended dose. In addition, this fleshy fruit fights free radicals and has a high fiber content.

Melon is not only a refreshing and sugary snack to eat to rehydrate and quench thirst, but also a valuable ally for tanning: 100 grams of pulp provide 200 micrograms of vitamin A (40% of the daily requirement).

Even peaches, with 100 micrograms of vitamin A per 100 grams of pulp (corresponding to 20% of the recommended dose), are a must in your diet for a perfect complexion. It is a real concentrate of properties: a diuretic, antioxidant and pro-tanning fruit!

Apricot, melon and peach can be paired to create the perfect fruit salad or to quench your thirst with a good juice. Either way, you’ll have a great quencher for your palate and your complexion.

Now that we have seen some of the foods useful for tanning, let's see some recipes in which they can be used in order to exploit not only their nutritional and tanning properties, but also to enhance their taste.

A first idea, for a fresh and satisfying breakfast or snack is to prepare a bowl of fresh fruit consisting of cherries, watermelon, peaches, melon and apricots, enriched with yogurt and a couple of our crumbled Soft Amaretti biscuits. And, for the experimenters in the kitchen, lovers of more sophisticated combinations, the addition of basil can make everything more delicious.

If, instead, you feel like an appetizing summer treat, an option that allows you to stay true to your pro-tanning diet, is the Tomato gazpacho flavored with Anchovy Fillets. The recipe, very simple and fast, is based on peppers and tomatoes and enhanced by the addition of Anchovy Fillets in Olive Oil which contribute to making the preparation even more delicious and pleasing to the palate.

In order to have an amber complexion but also a healthy, smooth and moisturized skin, it is useful to act also “from the outside”. If diet is fundamental for a healthy skin, the choice of cosmetics and creams also allows us to moisturize and care for the skin in the best possible way, especially after a long day in the sun.

During summer, the skin needs some extra attention: our olive oil cosmetics and Olive Oil cosmetics and soaps are suitable for all skin types and perfect for those seeking hydration and nourishment. After a refreshing shower, you can pamper your skin with our Moisturizing Body Lotion: characterized by an ultra-rich texture, thanks to the presence of our Extra Virgin Olive Oil Fruttato it absorbs quickly and is ideal for particularly dehydrated skin.