Posted on 08/17/2010 3:48:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Love basking in the sun, but scared of those harmful sunrays? Well, now there’s a safer way to make fun in the sun safer — stick to a Mediterranean diet.
Dr. Niva Shapira of Tel Aviv University’s School of Health Professions has shown that a diet rich in antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids, like the diet eaten in Mediterranean regions where melanoma rates are extremely low, can help protect us from skin cancer.
The sun’s rays damage both the skin and the immune system by penetrating the skin and causing photo-oxidation affecting both the cells themselves and the body’s ability to repair any damage, she explained.
Her prescription is to ‘go Greek’ with foods such as olive oil, fish, yogurt and colorful fruits and vegetables to fight the oxidizing effect of the sun, as well as regular applications of sunscreen and appropriate body coverings such as hats, beach coverups, and other sportswear.
Previous research demonstrated that the sun’s UV rays damage the skin by exciting its molecules and causing them to become oxidized, said Shapira.
"My theory was that if you prepared the body with sufficient and relevant antioxidants, damage could be reduced,” she added.
For a study at the Baltic Sea, Dr. Shapira and Prof. Bodo Kuklinski of Rostock University organized two groups.
One group was provided a drink high in antioxidants, while the other enjoyed beverages such as sodas.
Those who hydrated with the antioxidant-rich drink had fifty percent fewer oxidation products (i.e. MDA) in their blood at the end of the two-week period, which included five to six hours of exposure to the sun daily.
Further studies proved that these antioxidants, especially carotenoids — fruit and vegetable pigments like red from tomatoes and watermelons and orange from carrots and pumpkins that accumulate in the skin where they serve as a first line of protection — had delayed the phenomenon of skin erythema, which indicates the initiation of tissue and DNA damage that can lead to skin cancer.
"In foods, many vitamins and various antioxidants and bioactive ingredients work to support one another and the body’s natural protective mechanisms. Synergies between the nutrients in your food, which make a significant contribution to health, may contrast with the relative isolation of a vitamin supplement,” said Shapira.
The study has been published in Nutrition Reviews.
Click the link to this article. They have a picture of what looks to be Pad Thai, being eaten by chop stick, and a caption about Greek food. Is Pad Thai greek food? Do they eat Greek food with chop sticks?
Word on the street is that the chemicals absorbed by slathering kids with sunscreen since they are newborns is what is causing the ADHD epidemic...just sayin'...be careful out there.
Fage---the Greek yogurt is delish.
A nice breakfast dish: mix Fage yogurt, Stonyfield French Vanilla yogurt and blueberries.
(I use poly bags of Dole frozen blueberries---conveniently on-hand in your freezer, in season and out).
My new fave restaurant is Pita Jungle. Their jalapeno/cilantro hummus is to die for! (Phoenix area only, I believe.) We love Greek food. Finally there’s some good news about the foods that we love!
Give them dolmas instead.
Pad thai is Thai I believe. Not greek.
That said, no intioxidants are not going to help me. I used baby oil for tanning as a teen.
No cancer yet though.
As someone of Chinese heritage, I can assure you Greeks do not eat with chopsticks, unless they’re poking some flaming saganaki.
I love the Greek version of lemon chicken. And when it comes to ‘hot’, you should check out the babes who visit Santorini. It correctly defines the term ‘international relations’.
Ah, another epidemiological study of the benefits of a “Mediterranean” or “Greek” diet that overlooks what’s really going on.
If you divide Greece into the secularized cities and the still-pious Orthodox countryside when you do the study, it’s only in the still piously Christian areas that the health benefits are found. Why? Because for 50 days before Pascha, 40 days before Christmas, 15 days before the Dormition of the Theotokos, all but about five Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year and a stretch of days of variable length before the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul, pious Orthodox Christians abstain from all meat, eggs and dairy products, as well as (olive) oil and alcoholic beverages (though shellfish are allowed all the time and fin fish on “feast days” that fall during the fasts, plus weekends, Tuesdays and Thursdays during the Apostles’ Fast and the first 26 days of the Nativity Fast, and you get to whoop it up with (olive) oil and wine on weekends).
We make Pud Thai at home.
Thanks for the ping.
Awesome, thanks!
I love those things. I make my own taziki sauce for my home made gyros. Good stuff...
I thought that it was long known that the Mediterranean diet was the healthiest way to eat on the planet, along with the diabetic diet.
That being said...I think I will have a falafel salad for lunch tomorrow.
BTW, thank you for the reminder. ;o)
Other than the fact the country is collapsing into chaos?
When an economy goes belly-up, I'd rather be there than here ...FWIW. ;P
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