Sun Screams

Position: The Tropics

“Tropical sun – it will burn the skin off your nose and the butter off your toast.” – Boris Spinovsky

As the months slide by down here 12 degrees north of the equator, the Sun makes its inevitable way northwards. That’s great news for our solar cells, which are churning out the amps, but not so much for our refrigerator. The poor thing is working harder than ever to keep the Veuve-Cliquot drinkably chilled. Now, with the sun glaring down, the risk of sunburn has increased significantly. This time of year, even reflected sunlight will sear your skin. (Ask me how I know.)

Being something of an iconoclast, I generally reject with a firmly jerked knee all marketing hyperbole. Especially anything promoted as “good for me”. You say Lipitor, I say diet and exercise. You say Atkins, I say give me a big currant scone after my hike. You say Viagra, I say this is a family blog.

Sunscreen

You say SPF 50, I say t-shirt. Sunscreen? Nope, don’t use the stuff. It’s medically unproven (in fact it may cause more harm than good), and worse it’s slimy and bad for the fish. With 88 gallons of fresh water aboard Aleta, we have to limit our showers to all but super-funky emergencies. Yes, we have a watermaker, but it’s a slow, energy-intensive process. Anything I can do to feel a little cleaner a little longer is better in my book. So it’s off with the sunscreen and on with the t-shirt.

Don’t get me wrong. Dealing with sun exposure isn’t trivial, particularly the math. Take SPF50*: Coppertone’s marketing department says you can lay in the sun 50 times longer after basting in it and not burn. That begs the question: if I sunbathe au natural for 10 minutes before reaching for my t-shirt, why not bask for the next eight hours with suntan lotion on? Because I have other things to do, that’s why! Good grief!

SPFffft!

As for that part about suntan lotion being bad for you? Like refined sugar, too much of a good thing isn’t healthy. Research (see links below) is showing that lack of sun exposure (thanks SPF) and the consequent reductions in vitamin D wreaks all kinds of havoc with your body. And your One-a-Day multivitamin isn’t helping.

So forget all that stuff you’ve read. Expose your pasty body gradually. Start with 10 minutes and add little more each day. Just don’t burn yourself! That’s when the damage occurs. Note: it’s particularly important that kids don’t get sunburned. According to the experts it’s the single biggest predisposing factor for skin cancers later in life. (Too late now for me to accuse my mom of child neglect!)

You say you’re in hurry? I say take a longer holiday. Better living without chemicals. C’mon in. The water’s fine!

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*please!

Links to interesting things:

• Outside Online: Is Sunscreen the New Margarine?
• BBC: Statins ‘don’t work well for one in two people’

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