Protect Your Skin From UV Rays With This All Natural Trick

Summer is the season to enjoy the outdoors, but sunburns are a nuisance no one wants to put up with. The potential long-term damage the sun can wreak on your skin is also best to be avoided, but the slick and slimy sunscreens squirted out of factories by the bucketful are far from the best way to protect yourself if you’re looking to work with your body and the elements rather than against them.

We’ve delved into the world of paleo and sought ought some ways to fight sunburns from the inside out, including one herbal preventative that might knock sunscreen right off the shelf.

Sunburn Prevention Starts with A More Natural Diet

Nutrition really is the foundation of good health in all respects, and science suggests that sunburns are no different. As a sunburn is essentially a type of inflammation, maintaining your body in a way that makes it less prone to inflammation is a good way to start fending off that red and painful after-sun skin condition.

Processed foods and especially vegetable oils have been tied to increased inflammation responses and autoimmune disorders, and you’ve probably already heard suggestions to cut these out of your diet as much as possible anyway. Add in more Omega-3 fatty acids and saturated fat while cutting down on carbs, and you’ll have a system that subdues inflammation before it begins and will be that much less susceptible to sunburn (saturated fat was also found to be protective in mice injected with melanoma cells—skin cancer).

Paleo enthusiasts insist that a higher-fat, lower-carb, unprocessed diet is the way our species ate right up to the time we started farming, and that it’s what our largely un-evolved bodies need to be at their most healthy. There are competing theories of the “best” diet, of course, but there’s no questioning the fact that these nutritional recommendations do reduce inflammation, and there are several studies that link Omega-3s and increased saturated fat intake directly to lower levels of sun damage and risk.

Astaxanthin is Nature’s Inner Sunscreen

With the foundation of a non-inflammatory diet, the number one thing you can do to naturally and healthily prevent sunburns and other skin damage is to add a dollop of astaxanthin to your intake, either in meals or in supplement form.

A naturally-occurring carotenoid, astaxanthin is the reddish-pinkish-orangish compound that gives salmon, some trout, lobsters, and even flamingos their color. It’s also a potent anti-inflammatory and has been shown to reduce the effects of UV ray exposure to human skin both when applied directly to the skin and when ingested.

Enough astaxanthin in your system and it really is like putting on sunscreen from the inside out—less the excessive zinc, titanium, and oily bases, and with the added benefit of being plain old good for you.

Don’t get frustrated by the sun this summer. Take the all-natural approach to sun protection and you’ll be bronzed to perfection without the worry or the risk of damage from those UV rays. Smooth sailings and healthy living, with nary a sunburn in sight.

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