A reader has sent me an e-mail about carrot juice. Not because it's a wonderful source of nutrients, but because - in her case - drinking a lot of it turned her face, palms and feet yellow.
This is a common problem among people who drink too much carrot juice, overdose on multivitamins or eat large amounts of vegetables containing the orange pigment carotene.
I hate to suggest that eating a lot of vegetables can be a bad thing, but, unfortunately, overdoing carotene can leave you with skin so yellow that only an expert can tell it's not caused by liver disease.
Should carrots and leafy-green vegetables we're told to eat plenty of carry a health warning?
No. Most of us still don't eat enough vegetables. According to a recent survey, most people eat only one serving of vegetables a day, which isn't enough to put us in the carotene-overdose range.
If you do manage to overdose (the condition, carotenemia, isn't usually dangerous), stop the vitamins or the mega-dose of carrot juice, and let your body use up the carotene it's storing in your skin.