What You Eat Can Protect Your Skin from the Sun (Part 2)

Safety tips to keep top of mind:

• Wear UV-blocking sunglasses. Over time, exposure to ultraviolet light can cause cataracts and increase your risk of macular degeneration, a disease that causes irreversible blindness.

• If you’re a parent, protect your children’s skin. Research indicates that one or more severe, blistering sunburns in childhood or adolescence can double the risk of skin cancer later in life.
• Check the expiration date on your sunscreen. Sunscreen without an expiration date has a shelf life of no more than three years.
• Eat a healthy diet comprised of green leafy vegetables. Consumption of 6 milligrams of lutein per day (approximately one-third cup of cooked spinach) has been linked to a reduced risk of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration. Vitamins and dietary supplements formulated with purified lutein provide another option for adding this nutrient to a daily diet.

It’s important to note that when lutein is consumed in foods or vitamins, it deposits in various tissues in the body — the eyes, the skin, fat tissue and so on. Therefore, it may also be beneficial to apply lutein directly to the surface of your skin. Several skin care products containing lutein are now available and can be purchased online at www.sephora.com or at salons that carry California Tan Heliotherapy sun care products.

For more information about how lutein can help promote healthy eyes and skin, talk to your doctor and visit the Lutein Information Bureau at www.luteininfo.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content, www.ARAcontent.com; e-mail: info@ARAcontent.com EDITOR’S NOTE: Barbara Levine is associate clinical professor of nutrition in medicine at Cornell University Medical College and chairperson of the Lutein Information Bureau.

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