Screening Sunscreen?

Summertime comes but once a year. As such, most people like to celebrate what seem like the fastest three months of the year by doing the things we normally do, only in a different place: outdoors. But before we do that, of course, we lather ourselves up in sunscreen so as to avoid the harmful excess of ultraviolet rays that so often leads to signs of premature aging, or worse, skin cancer.

But before you head out to the beach, rest assured your skin is safe, finish this article. According to an in depth study of The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization based out of Washington D.C., some of the most frequently purchased sunscreens—with an SPF rating of 15 or higher—may be doing far more harm than good.

With the prevalence of skin cancer showing no signs of decreasing, The Environmental Working Group went through a series of scientific tests to see what impact, if any, sunscreens (yes, sunscreen) were having in acquiring the disease. After analyzing 824 different sunscreens, The Environmental Working Group found that a whopping 84 percent of them either mischaracterized the level of protection their product offered, or had ingredients in them that posed health and/or safety concerns. Among the problems cited, many sunscreens offer only UVB protection, not UVA protection, which are the rays linked to premature aging and decreased immune function; some bottles claimed to block “all harmful rays,” but the study debunked that claim; and some sunscreens and their ingredients were found to actually be absorbed by the skin, increasing the amount of free radicals in the body when exposed to sunlight.

What does the FDA have to say about this? Not much. Because there aren’t any official FDA standards on the amount of UVA protection a sunscreen has to have (unlike UVB protection), what ingredients sunscreens can or cannot have, and the general lack of effective oversight on keeping sunscreen companies’ honest in what their bottles claim to provide, sunscreen companies have been able to peddle in half-truths and out right lies about their products for decades without even a veiled threat of punishment.

Vigilant Americans, along with congressmen and senators, have not taken this lying down, however. Class-action lawsuits have been filed by a number of citizens in California and six U.S. senators have written the FDA, imploring them to affix some set of standards to sunscreens that manufacturers must adhere to. Whether the FDA takes action is anyone’s guess (if you’re going by their track record, don’t hold your breath). In the meantime, the fact of the matter is that an internal sunscreen is the best way to avoid the harmful effects of prolonged sun exposure. We do need sun exposure in order to get the proper amounts of vitamin D into our bodies that help maintain blood levels and strong bones. It’s the overexposure that’s the problem. Thus, as has been written here at length in the past, a diet rich in foods that contain antioxidants is the body’s own way of lathering up on sunscreen, only internally. Antioxidants help rid the body of those pesky free radicals, the same free radicals that many sunscreens actually contribute to the body after being absorbed by the skin. Berries, beans, lentils, sprouts, peppers (particularly the hot ones), nuts and leafy green vegetables like spinach are rich in antioxidants, thus providing the body with the kind of sunscreen it needs to ward off the harmful, cancer causing effects of excess UVA rays.

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