Want to save your skin with the latest miracle sunscreen? How about a cheaper, healthier way that’s a lot more fun and looks better? It’s called a nice tan.
From the Protein Power LifePlan, Chapter 10, Sunshine Superman:
What happens when we slather on the sunblock? Many of the sunblocking agents currently of the market block the UVB portion of sunlight but offer little to no protection against the full complement of UVA wavelengths, which make up 90-95 percent of the UV light. And, as you’ll soon see, this spells trouble by lulling users into a false sense of security about their true safe duration of exposure to the sun.
Nature has endowed humans with built-in sun protection: the ability of the skin to tan. With gradual “unblocked” exposure of skin to sunlight, the UV waves (both UVA and UVB) stimulate pigment-producing cells within the skin (called melanocytes) to produce and rearrange little packets of a pigment called melanin, our naturally produced sunscreen. The body can regulate the amount of pigment produced to handle the amount of daily sun exposure, naturally protecting the deeper layers of skin from the damaging and potentially cancerous effects of UVA and controlling the production of natural vitamin D (in the upper layers)
So not only does a nice tan allow you to keep on making vitamin D, it’s a lot cheaper and, as far as I know, still legal in most states.
I read (in a book of which I’ve forgotten the name) that what stimulates your body to make a tan on your skin is the amount of light entering the eyes. Thus, if you want a tan, don’t wear sunglasses. Sorry, I can’t give any references, cause like I said, I forgot the name of the book.