Better than tomatoes (Image: Peter Roos/plainpicture)
Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, the song goes. Catching too many rays causes wrinkles and freckles at best, and deadly cancer at worst. And yet nothing feels quite as good on the skin as the warm kiss of the sun鈥檚 rays. This feel-good factor 鈥� which may even elicit a response akin to addiction 鈥� might have evolved from our need for sunlight to make vitamin D.
鈥淣othing feels so good as the sun鈥檚 warm kiss 鈥� but is it deadly?鈥�
Advertisement
What鈥檚 a prudent person to do?
The one thing nobody should try to get away with is sunburn, which not only hurts but has been shown to , the rarest but most dangerous form of skin cancer. 鈥淎ll sun exposure causes cell mutations that may eventually lead to cancer, but sunburns exacerbate this effect,鈥� says at the University of California, San Francisco. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very intense dose.鈥�
How much sunning you can do in relative safety varies from person to person. 鈥淚t really depends on your skin type,鈥� says New York-based dermatologist . The darker the skin, the higher the concentration of melanin, a pigment that shields skin cells from the damaging effects of UV rays. 鈥淚t is kind of like a natural sunscreen,鈥� Linos says. People with Mediterranean, olive-toned skin, for instance, are than those with very pale skin.
To help you navigate the issues, there are wearable devices that tell you how long you can reasonably spend in the sun without protection to get a vitamin D boost. Then there鈥檚 sunscreen: an SPF of 15 means the user can stay in the sun 15 times as long without burning.
Taking anti-inflammatory painkillers can by around 15 per cent, but doing so regularly carries its own risks. A more tasty solar defence could be to eat tomatoes. A small study recently looked at the effect that daily for 12 weeks had on how 20 women鈥檚 skin reacted to UV exposure. 鈥淭hose that were on tomatoes had increased sun protection in their skin,鈥� says at Newcastle University, UK, one of the study鈥檚 authors. The key is the tomato鈥檚 antioxidant properties, he says, adding that green tea and blueberries might have similar benefits. The foods are no substitute for sunscreen, however. 鈥淭hey just provide a little bit of extra protection,鈥� he says.
Read more: 鈥�Guilty pleasures: Which bad habits can you get away with?鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淕etting away with sunbathing鈥�
