| .  My daughter Sarina on the beach in Sydney. | When I was a new mother with a ten month old baby, I found myself in the wonderful position of having nothing else to do for a few months other than hang out with my infant daughter in Sydney Australia. Because she was mostly existing on just breast milk at that time, I knew it was important for my baby to get regular sunshine on her body so that she could make adequate vitamin D. Since we were near the ocean -- I made sure we visited the beach every day. |
But it was the middle of Australia's Summer -- and people were talking about the hole in the ozone which was right over us now. So I wanted to be careful not to overdo it. I also had heard things that made me leery of using sunscreen -- so we didn't use it. (Recently Dr. Joel Fuhrman reaffirmed my sunscreen avoidance with his article, Chemical Sunscreens are Even Worse than we Thought.) Instead I dressed my daughter carefully to prevent too much exposure to the sun.
Since I had never lived in a big city, I was also enjoying some conveniences I'd never had before -- like juice bars I could walk to that served up large glasses of carrot juice made fresh on the spot and public transit that enabled me to get where ever I wanted without having to drive or find parking.
Since I had never lived in a big city, I was also enjoying some conveniences I'd never had before -- like juice bars I could walk to that served up large glasses of carrot juice made fresh on the spot and public transit that enabled me to get where ever I wanted without having to drive or find parking.
| Most days after popping Sarina into the backpack I'd walk to a juice bar and buy a big glass of carrot juice. Then we'd head to a beach. Somehow it always seemed to be about the middle of the day by the time we made it there...right when the sun's intensity was at its peak. I'd strip my daughter's clothes off and let the sun bathe her entire body -- for about ten minutes and then cover her back up. On our way back home I'd buy a second carrot juice. |  |
Day after day -- when neither of us was getting any darker, I'd let her spend more and more time completely naked in the sun. Eventually she was spending at least a good hour right about lunch time, stark naked on the beach in the middle of Australia's summer. Day after day, I was drinking two... sometimes three 16 oz glasses of freshly made carrot juice. Both of us had an olive glow to our skin (she was not drinking the carrot juice directly -- but probably getting it via nursing.) But what neither of us had was any evidence that we were burning, nor even tanning!
My daughter playing with a new friend
I should mention too, this was the not the first time I had observed the ability of carrot juice to prevent sunburns. Years earlier, I had gone on a canoe trip following a few weeks of drinking lots of carrot juice. The group of us that went, were mostly not sunscreen users -- and everyone who did not use sunscreen turned beet-red. But there was one exception...me. I didn't burn. And I am someone who has certainly had my share of sunburns over the years -- but all of them at times when I had not been consuming large amounts of carrot juice.
I was so surprised that I did not burn, I actually looked up the nutritional content of carrot juice and saw that it was very high in both beta-caroteen and PABA. You may recall PABA as one of the ingredients that was commonly used in sunscreens years ago, but fell out of favor due to some people having reactions to it. PABA used to be considered a member of the B-complex family of vitamins but lost that status when it was discovered that bacteria in our bodies can make it from Folate in our diet. Maybe that's why when I tried to find information on the PABA content of any carrot juice or even just carrots just now -- I was unable to do so. It is not one of the nutrients listed in the USDA Nutrient Database, and no search engine I tried brought up a single document with this information. I tried the National Library of Medicine and was unsuccessful there as well. Strange that I was able to find this info years ago, but now cannot. However, I had discussed this issue about ten years ago with vegan dietician Jack Norris and he wrote about our conversation in this 2009 blog post, where Jack also shared this study which suggested that beta-caroteen can also protect the skin from the sun. So there you have it -- possibly a safer way to protect the skin from sun, rather than slathering on chemical sunscreens.
There have been times when I had not been drinking large amounts of carrot juice and then spent too much time in the sun, and did in fact burn. As the evening wore on and my skin was getting more and more red and I could feel it burning I would race to the store and buy 5 -10 lbs of carrots and quickly make juice and drink several glasses right away. Always when I have done this, the burn is greatly decreased by the following morning.
Now in our family when anyone thinks that they might have overdone it in the sun -- the first thing we do, is make carrot juice, though planning ahead and drinking a couple glasses of it daily for a few days BEFORE possible sun exposure appears to be far better.
I was so surprised that I did not burn, I actually looked up the nutritional content of carrot juice and saw that it was very high in both beta-caroteen and PABA. You may recall PABA as one of the ingredients that was commonly used in sunscreens years ago, but fell out of favor due to some people having reactions to it. PABA used to be considered a member of the B-complex family of vitamins but lost that status when it was discovered that bacteria in our bodies can make it from Folate in our diet. Maybe that's why when I tried to find information on the PABA content of any carrot juice or even just carrots just now -- I was unable to do so. It is not one of the nutrients listed in the USDA Nutrient Database, and no search engine I tried brought up a single document with this information. I tried the National Library of Medicine and was unsuccessful there as well. Strange that I was able to find this info years ago, but now cannot. However, I had discussed this issue about ten years ago with vegan dietician Jack Norris and he wrote about our conversation in this 2009 blog post, where Jack also shared this study which suggested that beta-caroteen can also protect the skin from the sun. So there you have it -- possibly a safer way to protect the skin from sun, rather than slathering on chemical sunscreens.
There have been times when I had not been drinking large amounts of carrot juice and then spent too much time in the sun, and did in fact burn. As the evening wore on and my skin was getting more and more red and I could feel it burning I would race to the store and buy 5 -10 lbs of carrots and quickly make juice and drink several glasses right away. Always when I have done this, the burn is greatly decreased by the following morning.
Now in our family when anyone thinks that they might have overdone it in the sun -- the first thing we do, is make carrot juice, though planning ahead and drinking a couple glasses of it daily for a few days BEFORE possible sun exposure appears to be far better.
What my daughter and I looked like after several months of this daily routine
