# Do Anorexics Really Turn Orange? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 13, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-anorexics-really-turn-orange/161115 "2003-03-13T15:46:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-anorexics-really-turn-orange/161115/1 "2003-03-13T15:46:17Z")
Is it true that one of the side effects of anorexia is that their skin can turn orange as a result of eating too many carrots? Is this effect due to excess beta-carotene? Could the same thing happen in non-anorexics if they ate too many carrots?? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-anorexics-really-turn-orange/161115/2 "2003-03-13T16:14:10Z")
Too many carrots makes your skin turn orange, regardless of anorexia. (BTW it seems contradictory to me that a person with anorexia eats too much of anything. . . .) Same thing can happen with other yellow vegetables, such as squash. I knew an adult that went on some carrot diet and started to turn orange. When my daughter was about 9 months old we thought she had jaundice and it turned out she was just eating too much mashed carrots–it was by far her favorite and we had been letting her eat all she wanted to the exclusion of other foods. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-anorexics-really-turn-orange/161115/3 "2003-03-13T16:14:14Z")
Susan Dey of LA Law and The Partridge Family indeed turned orange during her Partrige years, struggling with Anorexia. Her diet consisted mainly of carrots, saturating her system with carrotene. Danny Bonaduce told her to “EAT SOMETHING!” ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-anorexics-really-turn-orange/161115/4 "2003-03-13T16:35:19Z")
- - - There was a website of a girl that heard about the turning orange thing and tried it by eating only carrots for 30 days or so. She had before and after photos, and she did kinda get an orange-sort-of color to her. I think someone here provided the link… ~ ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-anorexics-really-turn-orange/161115/5 "2003-03-13T16:40:57Z")
- - - Found it: [http://www.steelgirl.com/carrot.htm](http://www.steelgirl.com/carrot.htm) ~ ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-anorexics-really-turn-orange/161115/6 "2003-03-13T16:56:09Z")
Thanks! I still don’t understand why they like to eat carrots so much. Are carrots any lower in calories than other vegetables? ---
**Author:** ![beajerry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@beajerry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beajerry)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-anorexics-really-turn-orange/161115/7 "2003-03-13T19:23:01Z")
Yellow skin can also be caused by jaundice (high bilirubin level), which can be caused by hemolytic anemia which can be caused by metabolic acidosis which can be caused by body fat burning because someone isn’t eating any glucose. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-anorexics-really-turn-orange/161115/8 "2003-03-13T22:07:09Z")
I think it was Cecil who remarked that carotosis (too much beta-carotene) is an affliction that “you really have to put an effort into dying from.” ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-anorexics-really-turn-orange/161115/9 "2003-03-14T00:55:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by beajerry \* > \*\*Yellow skin can also be caused by jaundice (high bilirubin level), which can be caused by hemolytic anemia \*\* Correct so far. > [@](#): > > **which can be caused by metabolic acidosis which can be caused by body fat burning because someone isn’t eating any glucose.** But I disagree with that. Indeed, you can get a mild metabolic acidosis from starvation or fasting, but not enough to cause hemolysis. In fact, I would like to see a reference to support the notion that acidosis _ever_ causes significant hemolysis. The reason that people with anorexia look orange is due to more than the fact that they may eat carrots. Even without eating huge amounts of carrots, anorectics may look orange-ish. This is because their metabolism has slowed (as compensation for the state of starvation) and that leads in turn to decreased metabolism of carotene. So, carotene accumulates. BTW, carotene accumulation (carotenemia) does _not_ lead to yellowing of the eyes, unlike jaundice which does. Carotene is fat soluble and hence doesn’t deposit in the hydrophilic (i.e. water soluble) tissues of the sclera (the whites of the eyes). Bilirubin, the yellow pigment you see in jaundice, _is_ hydrophilic. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-anorexics-really-turn-orange/161115/10 "2003-03-14T12:29:36Z")
There’s also the (slang) term **tanorexic** used in the UK media to describe a minor celebrity who looks starved skinny and dye-tanned or plastered with make-up resutling in a tacky fake orange glow.