Internal Sunscreen

I’m not saying your sunscreen lotion is obsolete. Definitely slather it on. I am saying that even waterproof broad-spectrum SPF 45 may not be enough – that we need additional protection on the inside.

As with most things, light has its upsides and its downsides. To see, we need light. Light activates the rods and cones in the back of our retinas that allow us to see shapes and color. That area of the retina containing the rods and cones is called the macula.

Every time the light hits our eyes, it sets off photo-oxidation reactions, creating dangerous free radicals that over time can damage the macula, resulting in macular degeneration, a progressive loss of sight. Photo-oxidation can also damage the lenses over our eyes, resulting in cataracts, progressive lens clouding.

On our skin, sunlight initiates reactions that lead to the beneficial production of vitamin D. Unfortunately, it also causes skin tissue damage ranging from loss of elasticity and wrinkles to skin cancer.

Eating more veggies helps. Plants manufacture lutein and zeaxanthin as their own sunscreen and then pass the benefits along to us.

Lutein and zeaxanthin, which travel together, are fat-soluble nonprovitamin A carotenoids. In other words, they’re digested like fat and along with fat, aren’t used to make vitamin A, and are free-radical scavenging antioxidants contained in the yellow-orange pigments of green, yellow, and orange plants. And yes, I did say the yellow-orange pigment in green plants. Some plants just have so much green chlorophyll that the yellow-orange is hidden.

As with many fat-soluble nutrients, our bodies stores lutein and zeaxanthin primarily in our fat tissue and liver. They travel in our blood attached to HDL, also known as good cholesterol. They're also stored at high concentrations in the macula and lens of the eye and in the derma of the skin where they limit photo-oxidation damage by filtering blue UV rays.

In addition to the sunscreen protection, lutein and zeaxanthin's antioxidant abilities may also protect the lining of our blood vessels and help prevent some cancers.

The more lutein- and zeaxanthin-containing foods we eat, the more we store, the more we have in our blood, our eyes, and our skin, and the more internal sunscreen protection we have. There is no official recommended daily allowance (RDA) for lutein or zeaxanthin but some research indicates that we may want to aim for 6mg or more per day. There is no known toxicity from excess consumption from food so eat up.

Just as with beta-carotene, it may be safer to get lutein and zeaxanthin from food sources rather than supplements because of the inter-relationship of the various nutrients packaged in plants. Plus, the higher the vegetable and fruit consumption, the greater the bioavailability of lutein, zeaxanthin and vitamin C.

So eat these:

Also check out the USDA site for a more in-depth listing. Going beyond the pretty visual, other excellent sources of lutein and zeaxanthin include turnip greens, collard greens, beet greens, and Brussels sprouts.

Eat lots of veggies so that you can see lots of veggies well into your old age.