Can Food Help With Sun Protection?

Certain foods can act as sun protection. For real! They can help your body protect itself from the skin damage that can lead to skin cancer. They can also protect your skin from other damaging effects of too much sun so that you can get the vitamin D and other health benefits you need, with a lower risk of harm.

Of course covering up, wearing a hat and applying nontoxic sunscreen when being outdoors for longer periods is still recommended. Be smart about your time in the sun.

How does this food thing work? Eating foods high in antioxidants — compounds found in plant foods that help protect your body from free radical damage — does more than lower your risk for things like heart disease and diabetes. Antioxidants are photoprotective of your skin (a fancy way of saying that they protect your skin from light); they prevent oxidative damage from the sun, and they reduce inflammation of your skin cells.

A 2001 study found that antioxidants — especially vitamin C — play a significant role in acting as a natural sunscreen and protecting your skin from sun damage. When applied in amounts that accumulated on the skin, vitamin C actually destroyed any free radicals that it came into contact with. What does this mean for us? Perhaps adding antioxidants into sunscreens is a good idea, but we should also eat them in abundance — and on a daily basis.

For some of the top antioxidant-rich foods, click here.