People with a yellow skin hue appear particularly healthy and attractive, according to researchers at St Andrews and Bristol universities studying the relationship between skin colour and attractiveness. They also established for the first time that yellow pigments, or carotenoids, from certain fruit and vegetables played a key role in producing yellowness in skin, The Grocer magazine reported. As part of the study, 40 volunteers rated 51 Scottish Caucasian faces for healthiness and attractiveness. The results will be published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior in March, the magazine said.

Ian Stephen, one of the scientists involved in the project, said the link between yellowness and carotenoids opened up new strategies for encouraging young people to eat more fruit and vegetables, especially as it took just two months of increased consumption to produce visible results. He said: ''Telling people they might have a heart attack in 40 years' time if they don't eat more healthily is one thing. What we can do is say, 'This is what you could look in a couple of months if you increased your fruit and veg intake'.