 If dietary carotenoids contribute to a normal, healthy skin color, why not just go for the quick fix and take a pill? Because it doesn't work. A paper published last year looked at how effective kale was at increasing carotenoid concentration in the skin. As you can see, compared to placebo, there was a significant rise in carotenoid concentration in both the forehead and the palm during kale supplementation. And you can see that they were still significantly above baseline even two weeks after they stopped the kale. What if instead of the sugar pill, though, you compared kale to beta-carotene pills, lutein pills, mixed carotenoid pills? They didn't work. Here are the three carotenoid supplements, each mixed in with the placebo. Nothing happened. And here's them mixed in with the samples of kale. The answer is produce, not pills. They conclude that the higher increase in the skin may possibly be caused by the fact that the antioxidant substances in the skin act as a network, protecting each other against degradation caused by free radicals. Vegetables, fruit, and natural extracts, which contain a cocktail of different carotenoids, protect tissues such as the skin more efficiently than high doses of single synthetic carotenoids. This indicates that the antioxidants in the skin protect each other in an antioxidative network. They all work together in greens to help keep your skin healthy and beautiful.