If you guessed SUNSHINE was the free vitamin…well done! You are correct. Sunshine is SO GOOD for our health and so easy to ‘take’ yet some of us don’t get a chance to enjoy it each day, because we work indoors and are simply “too busy”.
This needs to change.
SUNSHINE is one of those vitamins which is absolutely essential for good health. In fact without a healthy amount of sunshine in your week your bones become brittle eventually leading to osteoporosis, your mood dips with the possibility of leading to depression and sadly cancer can even eventuate. Sunshine helps the body maintain health by boosting your immune system (converting cholesterol to vitamin D), which in turn prevents disease. It also provides you with a flood of happy hormones which also strengthens your immune system. A daily dose of sunshine assists in preventing diseases like osteoporosis, cancer, obesity, heart disease, depression and more! Plus it is free!
Various ways that you can include more sunshine in your day are:
Sun-gazing – this is not direct sunlight however it is very beneficial for various reasons such as regulating sleep patterns and hormones by activating you pineal gland (sun rise and sunset are effective for this).
Enjoy a morning cuppa in the sun – this is a great time to sit in the stillness and soak up some rays of sunshine
Eat your lunch outside – take a break from technology
Get to the beach on the weekend, go for a bush walk outside
Enjoy a picnic on the grass with some friends in the sun
Read a book on the grass in your bikini (we are so lucky we can do this in Winter in North Queensland!)
You may be asking yourself, but what if my skin is sensitive and I burn easily? Should I wear sunscreen?
No, is the short answer. Sunscreen is laden with toxic ingredients that are absorbed by your skin. Our skin, being our largest organ, absorbs everything we put on it – make up, moisturiser, perfume, sunscreen, etc. Certain barrier creams like coconut oil provide SPF 10+ – a healthy alternative. However, if you are out on the water all day & dealing with water reflection or perhaps you work outside every day, a brand of sunscreen I would recommend is Miessence Outdoor Balm SPF 15+, for those days or times you know you will be in direct sunlight for hours. It is still healthy and advisable to wear a long sleeve cotton shirt and hat for example if you are working outdoors.
If you are not in this situation, of working outside all day as a landscaper for example, or spending a day on the water kayaking or fishing, then it is healthy to allow your body to receive full sun exposure for a period of 10-30mins every day in order to boost your immune system and prevent all kinds of diseases mentioned above, ranging from the common cold to cancer.
Our skin reacts and burns from the sun if our cells are not being fed living nutrition! We ideally want to be feeding our bodies a predominately plant based diet (part of my philosophy at Seeds Of Health) packed full of living nutrition – fresh juices, smoothies, vegetables, fruit, salads, nuts, legumes, lentils, seeds, etc. These foods contain so much vitality!
Despite knowing this you may still be asking but how much sun is too much? I believe it is best to start off slowly. However you choose to enjoy the sunshine, it is important to get a healthy dose of ideally 10-30mins each day. Full body exposure where possible.
There is an interesting group called the Sunshine Vitamin Alliance (http://www.sunshinevitamin.org) – a group of physicians, individuals and organisations – that promote the benefits of natural vitamin D (sunshine) for our health, as opposed to vitamin D in supplement form. It was interesting to read that they believe humans are spending less time in the sun, now than ever before, which in turn has lead to more than 1 billion people being vitamin D deficient – with various healthy issues resulting from this deficiency, as discussed above.
I encourage you to get out into the sun for 10minutes each day for the next week and notice how you feel. Does your mood lift? Do you find you have more energy, less sniffles and agitation, a healthier complexion? Just notice.
I know the sunscreen and sun are hot topics so leave your thoughts below. I would love to hear from you!
Have a beautiful day x
Janelle