05/11/2025
🥕Carotenoids🥕
This stunning display of autumn colour is the rowan tree in my garden. 🧡
What you’re seeing is the bioflavonoids that protect the leaves from the sun, specifically the caretonoids like beta carotene and alpha carotene, as well as lutein.
These pigments are present in all leaves all the time, we only get to see them when the chlorophyll fades though, it’s been under the green the whole time!
So when you eat green leaves like spinach, lettuce and rocket, chard and kale, you can know that you’re consuming a lovely dose of carotenoids. They’re also in carrots, butternut squash, apricots, sweet potato and pumpkins 🎃
And the magical thing is, we convert these into vitamin A, specifically retinol, retinal and retinoic acid, which protects our skin and eyes from sun damage - just like it protected the plant while it was growing 🪄✨🧡