Mark showing off his bronze...So Jealous
So I have a confession for everyone…I’m White! I know you’re all thinking, “John, you kid”, but seriously, I’m quite the whitey. If I lived in the 19th century, I’d be at the height of fashion, but alas, I live in the days where the golden people rule, and I am failing miserably in this regard. The Irish fair complexion in me rules and I am forced to abide unless I want to see just how red I can actually get. There are few things that I find worse than sunburns, perhaps having your fingernails pulled out one at a time, that could be worse.
The other day, I ran across an interesting article claiming that eating real foods can work as a natural sunscreen? The article talks about how getting the right balance of Omega 3 to 6 that Remy lectures on can actually make you less susceptible to sunburns. Can this be true? Could this paleo diet that I’ve been living actually protect me from those agonizing burns without having to lather myself in toxic sunscreen? This actually kind of makes sense. How did people survive without sunscreen for 1000’s and 1000’s of years after all. I don’t think Grok was being asked to pass the SPF 85 nor was he just hanging out in the cave all day.
Another added benefit to not wearing sunblock is that you will end up synthesizing more vitamin D, a vitamin that is vital to your functioning and is synthesized when you’re exposed to UV light from the sun. There has been research done that vitamin D can even prevent cancer, including skin cancer, a very hot topic these days as it is becoming more and more prevalent.
So have any of you noticed that you can be out in the sun longer without sunblock and not burn? I’m interested to know as I’m still very scared to go out and try it. There something about feeling like I’m on fire for a few days that keeps me from giving it a go. Childhood sunburns have caught up to me. The idea of having a glorious tan though is truly just a dream to me, unless all my freckles merge into one :) Post your thoughts.
I am right there w ya John! Always white, never a golden bronze:( We’ll have less wrinkles when were older:) Though I can get away with a spay tan more easily than you can, let me know if you ever want to try it, ha ha:)
In college I had a friend. Really I did. But that’s not the point. One day we’re talking and I mention how I’m really, really craving Filipino food, like my family used to make when I was a kid growing up. And he looks at me, completely and totally incredulously, and says, “Wait… You mean you’re not White?” Shortly thereafter I didn’t have a friend.
But I digress. While the article you cite is interesting, and I do believe that diet and exercise will have profound effects on all of one’s biological systems, I more firmly believe that your skin has a certain amount of melanin, and can therefore accept a certain amount of sun exposure before being damaged. And I seem to recall from somewhere that the amount of Vitamin D that you need can be synthesized with 15 minutes of sun exposure a week. Personally I’m not a huge fan of the sun and try to limit my own exposure, mostly because my skin, on top of getting a little brown, also develops moles and blackheads with sun exposure–which aren’t so cute.
But back to you John–you refer to your self as “white” but are you really? I’ve also heard the terms “ginger” and “daywalker,” and just kinda naturally assumed you were a ginger (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
I am proof of this. I don’t use sunblock… almost ever
a TAN is the bodies natural defense. Wait i’m not tan at all…. hold the phone!