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Some foods offer protection against sunburn, wrinkles, psoriasis

Food has complex influence on skin.

Date published: 7/4/2004

DESPITE THE PLETHORA of supplements that are available, you needn't spend lots of cash to help your skin.

Eating right can offer additional help. It provides mild protection against sunburns, wrinkles and psoriasis, although not acne.

Keep in mind that nutrition is still the second line of defense for most skin problems. Sunscreen and medications are still more potent.

At this time of year, sunburn is a concern for everyone, particularly fair-skinned people like myself. Although dark-skinned people are also vulnerable to sunburns and skin cancer, my darker-skinned friends can play in the sun longer than I can before burning.

Carotenoids, a family of pigments that color orange and dark-green vegetables and fruits, protect skin against the sun. Beta-carotene is the most widely known carotenoid, but others such as lutein, zeaxanthin and lycopene seem important as well.

In fact, lycopene may be the most potent, and it's easier to get it from food than pills. In a German study, volunteers ate about 1 tablespoons of tomato paste with 2 teaspoons of olive oil daily for 10 weeks. When exposed to ultraviolet light, the tomato-paste-eating volunteers suffered 40 percent less sunburn than volunteers who didn't eat the paste. The researchers say that lycopene, which makes tomatoes red, was responsible.

I wish I had known about this study last month, when my husband and I honeymooned at the Outer Banks. I still would have slathered myself with sunscreen before our daily pilgrimages to the beach, but I'd have eaten pasta with marinara sauce more often.

In my mind, although there is less research on lycopene, it seems more promising than some of the other carotenoids. Dozens of studies on beta-carotene and other carotenoids show mixed results, but most provide skin with mild protection from sun damage when people eat carotenoid-rich supplements long enough and at high-enough doses.

My theory is that the results are conflicting because isolating a single carotenoid, such as beta-carotene, in pill form, is less effective than eating a vegetable that contains many different carotenoids.

Rather than buying beta-carotene supplements, I'll stick to eating dark-orange fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, winter squash, sweet potatoes, red peppers, cantaloupe, mangoes and papaya. Dark-green leafy vegetables are good sources, too, including dark lettuces such as Romaine, along with spinach, broccoli, kale and collard greens.

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Date published: 7/4/2004