We’ve waited, as we do each year, and the longest, warmest days have finally arrived. In the heat, living things rush toward the lush peak of their vigor. Light-starved Northerners burst out to frolic and bask in the summer sun.
We work and play, sweat and swim. We get sunburned. We worry about ultraviolet radiation, wrinkles, skin cancer—or we don’t, and work on our tans before we even get outside. We buy products to reduce or amplify the sun’s effects: creams, sprays, clothing, shades. Some of us go nearly naked, while others cover every inch, and still others hide indoors, away from the light. How do we find balance, keeping ourselves safe from damage, while fully enjoying our natural birthright, the luxuriance of the sun?
The Scary Life-Giver
News flash: we need the sun! Aside from making life on the planet possible, its light sets our internal clocks, telling us when to be active and when to rest. It signals our brains to produce the chemicals that regulate emotions throughout the day and heal us during sleep. It interacts with cholesterol to produce and store vitamin D, a critical nutrient. Sun exposure reduces the incidence of disease, including various forms of cancer, and lowers stress and depression. We can’t get away from many thousands of years of adaptation; whatever our choices and necessities may be, we’re hardwired to live in relation to the sun.
On the other hand, the potentially harmful effects of intense exposure are real. Skin cancers have become increasingly prevalent and serious over the past decades. Too much UV can degrade skin health and lead to premature aging and discomfort, even when it doesn’t result in severe illness. It’s wise to take steps to care for our skin, and there are plenty of tools at our disposal to help. Ideally, those tools are safe and supportive in themselves; why would we cover ourselves with potentially harmful chemicals while trying to make ourselves safer?
Taking care of our skin naturally isn’t hard. There’s an abundance of old-school knowledge and common sense to draw on, and plenty of manufacturers of skin care products that emphasize safe and effective ingredients. While such products are designed to help support and protect us at the surface, the best place to start may be with what makes for healthy, supple skin in the first place. That’s a matter, first and foremost, of nutrition.
Strong Skin from the Inside Out
The skin, our largest organ, is primarily made up of fats and proteins. A diet that emphasizes their best forms literally builds healthy skin. The “glow” we associate with good skin comes from a sufficient number of good fat sources. Foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids (like fatty fish) are particularly beneficial, since we can’t produce those compounds on our own. Plant-based fats like those found in avocados, coconut, seeds, and nuts are great as well.
The main building blocks of skin are collagen and keratin. Our bodies make collagen best from a combination of animal proteins (including those found in eggs and dairy) with vitamin C, zinc, and copper. We can get C from citrus, but equally well from more seasonal summer foods like mature leafy greens, peppers, and tomatoes. Nuts, beans, and shellfish are all great sources of zinc. Bone broths are incredible sources of collagen that our bodies can use. Animal foods supporting keratin production include fish and (especially) liver, while seasonal plants like garlic and onion, greens, mango, and sunflower, provide necessary A and B vitamins.
Our skin cells, like all the rest, need water. It’s foundational to our diet, and dehydration is as hard on our skin as on our other organs. Alcohol, caffeine, and excessive sugar can contribute to vulnerable skin, while plenty of water, or electrolyte-rich beverages, provide essential support for skin health.
Moving to the surface, there are plenty of natural compounds that can help moisturize, support, and heal the skin. Many classic “spa-type” techniques involve simply applying whole, mashed, or juiced edible plants to the skin. Cucumber and watermelon (as well as aloe vera) are great for external and internal hydration—and is it a coincidence that many fruits that thrive in the sunny tropics, like avocado, coconut, papaya, and banana, have nourishing and toning benefits for our skin? Our ancestors used the plants around them to keep themselves well inside and out in the summer heat; they also widely used animal products like tallow as skin moisturizers and cleansers, and there’s a resurgence of interest in tallow soap for natural skin care. Fully natural, food-based soaps, moisturizers, and toners are readily available in your Co-op’s Wellness department, as well as from small local businesses like Liquid Summer Skincare, among many others.
Protection
It’s clear that we should take protective measures if we spend significant time in the sun at any time of year. Melanin, the compound in the epidermis that gives skin its color, is a natural protectant against UV, absorbing some of it before it can cause cellular damage, and providing antioxidant effects to heal some of the damage caused—but its efficacy is limited. Melanin is overwhelmed by strong sun exposure, and even naturally dark skin, while significantly more resistant to sunburn, remains vulnerable to the full range of potential harm.
Everyone can benefit from some sunscreen. SPF, or Sunscreen Protection Factor, measures the intensity of sun exposure (not its length of time) against which sunscreen can be expected to provide protection, until it’s washed or rubbed off. The near-universal recommendation is for formulations with an SPF of at least 30 (anything above 50 appears to be irrelevant), and which protect against both major types of UV (UVA and UVB).
Sunscreens protect the skin either chemically or physically. Physical protection is usually provided by either zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, which reflect UV away from the skin. Zinc appears to be more effective and safer, as some studies have found titanium dioxide to be potentially toxic. It’s always good to remember that “natural” doesn’t always mean “safe,” and that the U.S. doesn’t regulate cosmetics (or nutritional supplements) as stringently as it might.
The downside to these sunscreens is that they’re a bit greasy, and difficult to apply without leaving some visible residue. That’s why versions, often in spray forms, have been developed that contain the same minerals in the form of tiny nanoparticles. While cosmetically appealing, those nanoparticles can be absorbed through the skin, and that might not be something we’re comfortable with, since they’re not intended for internal use. Ecological groups also point to strong evidence of damage to coral reefs by accumulated sunscreen nanoparticles, in areas visited by many sun-loving swimmers and cruise-vacationers.
Chemically protective sunscreens absorb, rather than reflect, UV, transforming it into heat energy, which is then released through the skin. They tend to be smoother and easier to apply, but often less broadly protective, than mineral-based formulas. They’re also more often the culprits of allergic responses, and some of their most common active ingredients have been studied for carcinogenic and hormone-disruptive effects. Some of these chemicals have been banned in other countries because of their severe effects on aquatic life. As so often, it’s probably a good rule of thumb to stick with ingredients whose names have fewer syllables than you can count on your fingers.
Coconut, olive, and other natural oils, also boast some sun-protective capability. Though they’re inadequate to fully replace sunscreen, they can be great as an additional layer with added benefits. We can also retain some naturally generated protective and regenerative compounds—as well as the D vitamins that take time for our bodies to fully absorb—by only using soap when we bathe, otherwise just rinsing with water.
Clothing is another important form of sun protection. Hats that shade faces and necks are a must, as is lightweight and light-colored, reflective clothing that covers a fair portion of the body. A close weave in the fabric helps block more light. If we really want healthy skin, we’ll also want to choose natural fabrics; petroleum-based microfibers, like chemical sunscreens, are being increasingly studied for adverse human health effects, and are high on the list of individual contributions to the pollution of waterways and oceans.
If we want to maximize protection and benefit from the sun, we want to stay in the shade during the peak hours of intense sunlight—usually from 10:00am to 4:00pm—and spend our time in the sun (well-protected) in the morning and evening. However, many important benefits of sunlight are most potent exactly at the brightest moments of the day. The most frequently recommended strategy is to get five to ten minutes of exposure, without sunscreen or other added protection, at that time; that appears to be enough to maximize vitamin D production, mood enhancement, and other processes, without UV light overwhelming our skin’s protective abilities.
Food as Skin Medicine
In response to stress, the body increases production of “free radicals”—molecules which, lacking one electron, steal it from the next molecule over, potentially causing a chain reaction, which can ultimately damage healthy cells, through the same process by which it’s supposed to take care of bacterial and viral threats. We also produce natural antioxidants, which “donate” electrons to put the brakes on the process. UV exposure makes for too many free radicals for us to handle on our own; these damage skin cells, leading to degraded collagen and making the skin more vulnerable to cancer.
That’s where antioxidant-rich plant foods come in. While protein and fat are the skin-builders, fruits and vegetables—especially those in season during the summer—are the medicine chest, supplying us with the backup we need to cope with sun damage. Whole plant foods—in contrast to most nutritional supplements—also contain additional compounds that “reset” the donor molecules, so that they don’t remain compromised themselves.
Here, foods rich in vitamins C and E are again protective and healing, as are the lycopene found in tomatoes and watermelon, and compounds present in tea and cacao. Raspberries, strawberries, and pomegranate contain ellagic acid, which studies show protect the skin against damage from sun exposure and reduce inflammation in response to such damage. Raspberry seed oil, in fact, is available as an internal and external supplement for skin support, having been studied for its powerful protective potential.
Red grapes and dark blue and purple fruit of all kinds are high in resveratrol, a powerful compound extensively examined for a wide range of benefits, which include reasonably high SPF effects, as well as both prevention of tumor formation and suppression of cancer development once it’s begun. This suggests a particular regional practice for natural summer skin care: visiting the patches of black raspberries that line bike trails and the edges of woods and prairies throughout our area, and stuffing ourselves with delicious fruit, too perfectly ripe to last, during all the days of the year when we most need what it has to offer. What a beautiful example of our biological entwinement with the seasons and the life around us.
Balance
In an anxious world, it’s helpful to be reminded of who and what we are in the context of wider nature. The rise of skin cancer in recent years, say many scientists, is most concentrated in urban populations, and goes along with a rise in cheap year-round vacations to sun-drenched places, as well as visits to tanning salons and shrines of body image. It’s associated with modern luxuries, not with simply being outdoors in historically normal ways. We don’t need to be afraid of walking out to the garden, of a morning in the woods, a lunch break in the park, or a swim in the pond or the pool. Concern about the health of our skin doesn’t have to mean stress and an obsessive search for solutions to our vulnerability—it can be an easy combination of common sense and good fun. By all means, put on the sunscreen, and then do what people have done for ages: get out to work and play outdoors in the morning, take an afternoon siesta in the shade, eat and drink the most delicious foods of the season, and enjoy the breezes of the long summer evenings.
