We have had excellent weather here where I live, and can expect at least
another weak if weather reports are correct
I wish it was like this all
the time, as I said before it really gives me a big energy boost and I
generally feel really happy.
So anyway, I seen something in the news paper the other day that suggested
tomatoes protect against sun burn and act as a low level sun screen when 50g
are consumed with some olive oil. The protective compound is thought to be
Lycopene. Cooked/processed tomatoes give you more. I posted something on the
Calorie Restriction Society email lists early on in my CR where I noticed
that I have much increased protection from sun damage, despite being very
pale person. For an experiment (and before I done this I was quite
confident of my observations over the last 3 years) I decided to go out in
the garden and sun bathe for three hours in mid day sun when the sun index
was rather high and putting me at risk of sun burn. So my sister was out
there too trying to get a tan and the result was;
I never got sun burned one bit, no redness, very slightly brown... however
it was a totally difference case for my sister who eats a normal western
diet and is not CR'd. She ended up red and burned, even though she lightly
tanned all over to start with!
Is is all that green tea I drink? Is it the tomatoes, is it the CR? It's
probably all of them reducing the inflammation response and clearing up
those free radicals. I repeated this experiment the next day and got exactly
the same result. I noticed this over the last 3 years now but never did
this test.... casual sun exposure before used to make me go red, however now
it didn't.
I don't expect to see quite the same result if I lived in another country
where I would probably roast within 5 minutes... however it shows a nice
protective effect WITHOUT sun screen and might contribute to the general
anti aging effect of the skin. In the UK we don't have extreme temperatures
or VERY HIGH UV index, but usually enough in the summer to cause sun burn
within a short period of time.
I DON'T RECOMMEND TRY AND SPEND HOURS IN THE SUN AND GET BADLY SUN BURNED. I
WAS VERY CONFIDENT ABOUT MY OBSERVATIONS SO TRIED THE EXPERIMENT.
Matt