Protect Your Skin

While you're taking steps to prevent skin cancer, be sure to protect your health from hazardous ingredients in sunscreen. One of my favorite sunscreens, Neutrogena Wet Skin Spray Sunscreen, is on the Most Toxic list from the Environmental Working Group (EWG).  I should have known the easy application was too good to be true!

Read the article: The Most Toxic Sunscreen (and safer options)

Safer sunscreen is readily available, and you don't have to do a lot of homework to find it, thanks to Environmental Working Group's (EWG's) 8th annual guide to sunscreens. The report comes at a time when melanoma--the most serious type of skin cancer--rates are on the rise.

Many sunscreens offer inadequate protection from the sun and can contain toxic ingredients, to boot," says Sonya Lunder, senior research analyst at EWG. "This guide offers users much-needed, well-sourced information so they can make the right choices to protect themselves and their families."

You'll find a link in that article to the EWG's Guide to Sunscreens. You can check the sunscreens you have already purchased or plan to purchase.


We've all heard these recommendations below (from WebMD), but we probably all need a reminder:

How Can I Help Prevent Skin Cancer?

Nothing can completely undo sun damage, although the skin can sometimes repair itself. So, it's never too late to begin protecting yourself from the sun. Your skin does change with age -- for example, you sweat less and your skin can take longer to heal, but you can delay these changes by staying out of the sun. Follow these tips to help prevent skin cancer:

• Apply sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 30 or greater 30 minutes before sun exposure and every 2 hours thereafter, more if you are sweating or swimming.
• Select clothing, cosmetic products, and contact lenses that offer UV protection.
• Wear sunglasses with total UV protection and a wide-brimmed hat to shade your face and neck.
• Avoid direct sun exposure as much as possible during peak UV radiation hours (between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.).
• Perform skin self-exams regularly to become familiar with existing growths and to notice any changes or new growths.
• Eighty percent of a person's lifetime sun exposure is acquired before age 18. As a parent, be a good role model and foster skin cancer prevention habits in your child.

Action Item: Are your sunscreens safe or toxic? Check yours today (use the link below).

For Further Reading: EWG's Guide to Sunscreens and 21 Most Affordable Natural Sunscreens.

Reduce Your Risk of Death

I had other ideas for today's post, but after reading this research article from Science Daily I definitely think it is worth sharing. It's a long read today, but worth it. The text from the article is on this page just below my comments or you go click the link to read the story and supporting info.

This article makes me say (again)... Eat your vegetables and fruit! Fueling your body with natural foods leaves less room for the chemicals and additives and sodium and sugar that make you unhealthy, sick, give you pains and deplete your energy. If this article doesn't cause you to take a second or third look at your eating habits, then I'm not sure what will. YOU, for the most part, have control over how you feel, how your body functions and how likely you are to end up with heart disease or certain types of cancers. This is also a sad reminder that many people in the US do not even have access to fresh fruit and vegetables, thus leading to poor health and the snowball events that follow. Let's me grateful that most of us can choose healthy foods. Take charge and choose health!

As a reminder, these are results from one study. Add this to your growing knowledge of healthy eating and let it guide you in making good eating choices.

Eating seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day reduces your risk of death by 42 percent

Eating seven or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day reduces your risk of death at any point in time by 42% compared to eating less than one portion, reports a new University College London study.

Researchers used the Health Survey for England to study the eating habits of 65,226 people representative of the English population between 2001 and 2013, and found that the more fruit and vegetables they ate, the less likely they were to die at any age. Eating seven or more portions reduces the specific risks of death by cancer and heart disease by 25% and 31% respectively. The research also showed that vegetables have significantly higher health benefits than fruit.

This is the first study to link fruit and vegetable consumption with all-cause, cancer and heart disease deaths in a nationally-representative population, the first to quantify health benefits per-portion, and the first to identify the types of fruit and vegetable with the most benefit.

Compared to eating less than one portion of fruit and vegetables, the risk of death by any cause is reduced by 14% by eating one to three portions, 29% for three to five portions, 36% for five to seven portions and 42% for seven or more. These figures are adjusted for sex, age, cigarette smoking, social class, Body Mass Index, education, physical activity and alcohol intake, and exclude deaths within a year of the food survey.

The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, found that fresh vegetables had the strongest protective effect, with each daily portion reducing overall risk of death by 16%. Salad contributed to a 13% risk reduction per portion, and each portion of fresh fruit was associated with a smaller but still significant 4% reduction.

"We all know that eating fruit and vegetables is healthy, but the size of the effect is staggering," says Dr Oyinlola Oyebode of UCL's Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, lead author of the study." The clear message here is that the more fruit and vegetables you eat, the less likely you are to die at any age. Vegetables have a larger effect than fruit, but fruit still makes a real difference. If you're happy to snack on carrots or other vegetables, then that is a great choice but if you fancy something sweeter, a banana or any fruit will also do you good."

The findings lend support to the Australian government's 'Go for 2 + 5' guidelines, which recommend eating two portions of fruit and five of vegetables. The UK Department of Health recommends '5 a day', while 'Fruit and Veggies -- More Matters' is the key message in the USA.

"Our study shows that people following Australia's 'Go for 2 + 5' advice will reap huge health benefits," says Dr Oyebode. "However, people shouldn't feel daunted by a big target like seven. Whatever your starting point, it is always worth eating more fruit and vegetables. In our study even those eating one to three portions had a significantly lower risk than those eating less than one"

The researchers found no evidence of significant benefit from fruit juice, and canned and frozen fruit appeared to increase risk of death by 17% per portion. The survey did not distinguish between canned and frozen fruit so this finding is difficult to interpret. Canned fruit products are almost four times more popular than frozen fruit in Europe*, so it is likely that canned fruit dominated this effect.

"Most canned fruit contains high sugar levels and cheaper varieties are packed in syrup rather than fruit juice," explains Dr Oyebode. "The negative health impacts of the sugar may well outweigh any benefits. Another possibility is that there are confounding factors that we could not control for, such as poor access to fresh groceries among people who have pre-existing health conditions, hectic lifestyles or who live in deprived areas."


Action Item: Count your vegetable and fruit servings daily for a week. How are you doing?

For Further Reading: Fruit & Veggies: More Matters and Serving Sizes