Who Screens The Sunscreens?

Plus: why is "eating the rainbow" so tricky, and how can we make it easier for ourselves?

Author

The 10almonds Team
June 23, 2023

 

Today’s almonds have been activated by:

Loading Screen Tip: each day, take a photo of your dinner. You don’t have to post it on Instagram or anything (unless you want to!), just take a picture and keep it in an album entitled “meals” or similar.

After you’ve done this for 30 days, take a look at the album, ideally in a thumbnail-view mode so you can see them all at once. Is there a colorscheme going on? What color foods are most represented (is it: white-yellow-brown?) and what colors get least representation?

Now that you know which colors your meals are lacking, how could you bring a little more color to each day’s meals?

One almond
⏰ IN A RUSH?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

  • UVA rays from the sun cause skin cancer

  • UVB rays from the sun cause sunburn

  • Some sunscreens contain ingredients that may result in skin allergies and other undesired adverse health effects for some people

  • No FDA-approved sunscreen contains known carcinogens, even at maximum concentrations when applied 4x/day to 75% of the body

  • It is possible, however, to use physical UVA- and UVB-blockers instead, that don’t have the chemicals we mentioned above (they should, however, have zinc and titanium dioxide)

    • You can buy those ready-made, or see the bottom of today’s main feature for how to make them at home!

  • Cooking at home gives great health benefits—we know exactly what we’re eating and how it was prepared!

    • If you’d like that but don’t have time for meal prep, you can save time on both meal prep and shopping by taking advantage of 50% off today’s sponsor, Trifecta Nutrition, who will deliver ready-prepped nutrition-optimized meals (the plans are customizable!) to your door.

Read on to learn about these things and more…

One almond
👀 WATCH AND LEARN

Food expiration dates don’t mean what you think | Carolyn Beans

Most groceries are still perfectly safe to eat past their expiration dates. If the dates on our food don’t tell us that something’s gone bad, what do they tell us?

Carolyn Beans spills the beans:

😎 MAIN FEATURE

We Screen The Sunscreens!

Yesterday, we asked you what your sunscreen policy was, and got a spread of answers. Apparently this one was quite polarizing!

One subscriber who voted for "Sunscreen is essential to protect us against skin aging and cancer" wrote:

❝My mom died of complications from melanoma, so we are vigilant about sun and sunscreen. We are a family of campers and hikers and gardeners—outdoors in all seasons—and we never burn❞

Our condolences with regard to your mom! Life is so precious, and when something like that happens, it tends to stick with us. We’re glad you and your family are taking care of yourselves.

Of the subscribers who voted for "I put some on if I think I might otherwise get sunburned", about half wrote to express uncertainties:

  • uncertainty about how safe it is, and

  • uncertainty about how helpful it is

…so we’re going to tackle those questions in a moment. But what of those who voted for "Sunscreen is full of harmful chemicals that can cause cancer"?

Of those, only one wrote a message, which was to say one has to be very careful of what is in the formula.

Let’s take a look, then…

Sunscreen is full of harmful chemicals that can cause cancer: True or False?

False—according to current best science. Research is ongoing!

There are four main chemicals (found in most sunscreens) that people tend to worry about:

  • Abobenzone

  • Oxybenzone

  • Octocrylene

  • Ecamsule

Now, these two sound like four brands of rocket fuel, but then, dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO), which is also found in most sunscreens, sounds like a deadly toxin too. That’s water, by the way.

But what of these four chemicals? Well, as we say, research is ongoing, but we found a study that measured all four, to see how much got into the blood, and what adverse effects, if any, this caused.

We’ll skip to their conclusion:

❝In this preliminary study involving healthy volunteers, application of 4 commercially available sunscreens under maximal use conditions resulted in plasma concentrations that exceeded the threshold established by the FDA for potentially waiving some nonclinical toxicology studies for sunscreens. The systemic absorption of sunscreen ingredients supports the need for further studies to determine the clinical significance of these findings. These results do not indicate that individuals should refrain from the use of sunscreen.❞

Now, “exceeded the threshold established by the FDA for potentially waiving some nonclinical toxicology studies for sunscreens” sounds alarming, so why did they close with the words “These results do not indicate that individuals should refrain from the use of sunscreen”?

Let’s skip back up to a line from the results:

❝The most common adverse event was rash, which developed in 1 participant with each sunscreen.❞

Let us take a moment to remember the most common adverse event that occurs from not wearing sunscreen: sunburn!

You can read the full study here:

None of those ingredients have been found to be carcinogenic, even at the maximal blood plasma concentrations studied, from applications 4x/day to 75% of the body.

UVA rays, on the other hand, are absolutely very much known to cause cancer, and the effect is cumulative.

Sunscreen is essential to protect us against skin aging and cancer: True or False?

True, unequivocally, unless we live indoors and/or otherwise never go about under sunlight.

“But our ancestors—” lived under the same sun we do, and either used sunscreen or got advanced skin aging and cancer.

Sunscreen of times past ranged from mud to mineral lotions, but it’s pretty much always existed. Even non-human animals that have skin and don’t have fur or feathers, tend to take mud-baths in sunny parts of the world.

If you’d like to avoid oxybenzone and other chemicals, though, you might have your reasons. Maybe you’re allergic, or maybe you read that it’s a potential endocrine disruptor with estrogen-like and anti-androgenic properties that you don’t want.

There are other options, to include physical blockers containing zinc and titanium dioxide, which are generally recognized as safe and effective ingredients.

If you’re interested, you can even make your own sunscreen that blocks both UVA and UVB rays (UVA is what causes skin cancer; UVB is “milder” and is what causes sunburn):

One almond
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

Trifecta: Unwind, Recharge, and Reach Your Goals

We’ve written before about how cooking our own food at home means plenty of health benefits. Knowing all the ingredients and the process, we can be assured that what we’re eating is healthy. But what if we don’t have the time or inclination for a mountain of kitchen prep each day?

Trifecta Nutrition focus on delivering, well, nutrition. Tasty, chef-crafted meals, built around a nutritional plan to suit you (the meal plans are customizable).

But where they really excel is in how their expertly portioned, macro-balanced meals take the guesswork (and mathematics!) out of healthy eating.

It’s often said that the best way to “buy happiness” is with purchases that save us time—because what’s more precious than that?

Psst… Get 50% off your first order with code SPLASH50!

Please do check out our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

One almond
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook: Wholesome, Indulgent Plant-Based Recipes - by Nisha Vora

We all know that we should "eat the rainbow" (and that no, Skittles do not count)... So why do we often find ourselves falling into the same familiar habits and well-worn comfort foods?

Nisha Vora, of "Rainbow Plant Life", is here to make things a lot easier—brightening up our plates is her mission!

In this Instant Pot-authorized, beautifully illustrated cookbook, Vora offers us 90 recipes to do just that. And because it's an Instant Pot cookbook, they're all super easy.

What if you don't have an Instant Pot? Well, don't tell Instant Pot we said this, but another pressure cooker brand will work too. And if you don't have any pressure cooker, the recipes are modifiable for regular pots and pans. The recipes also lend themselves well to slow-cooker cooking, for that matter!

Where Vora really excels though is in making mostly-one-pot dishes beautiful and tasty.

The recipes, by the way, are drawn from cuisines from all around the world, and cover:

  • summer and winter dishes

  • breakfasts, sides, mains, desserts

  • the healthy and the decadent (and sometimes both!)

As for the presentation of each recipe, we get at least one full-page photo of the finished dish and sometimes extras of the steps. We get a little intro, the usual information about ingredients etc, and a no-fuss step-by-step method. It's very easy to use.

If you have allergies or other dietary considerations, this book is pretty mindful of those, making substitutions minimal and easy.

Bottom line: this comprehensive book will seriously brighten up the colors of your cooking!

What did you think of today's newsletter?

We always love to hear from you, whether you leave us a comment or even just a click in the poll if you're speeding by!

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

May today see you well-prepared for the coming weekend,

The 10almonds Team