Sunshine On My Shoulders

Did you know that the bone disease, Rickets (soft bones) is on the rise?

When I was a new parent I actually got a lot of my health information from tv news. Crazy I know. They would have "experts" come on and give the latest greatest health trends and I'd actually believe them! ha. Until I began reading about health for myself and found much of their advice faulty.

One thing they have been far, far too officious about is sunscreen. The result is many parents have been afraid of letting their children get a drop of sunlight on their skin without a layer of sunblock on first.

The problem is that sunshine is good and produces vitamin D in the skin on contact. We all need that  necessary bone building vitamin and a little sunshine is not going to cause skin cancer as we've been made to fear that it would.

As little as 20 minutes a day of sun on your face and arms is more than enough. You can also boost vitamin D by eating fish, eggs and cod liver oil.  The time to bring sunblock into play is when sun exposure is prolonged between the hours of 10am and 2pm.  But before 10am and after 2pm, the risk for sunburn decreases quite a bit so those are safer hours for prolonged sun exposure.

What did people do in days before sunscreen?  They wore long sleeves, brimmed hats, skirts and pants and sought shade in the heat of the day.  But today we're so all accustomed to immediate gratification that we seek to blur out old-school rules like wearing wide brimmed hats. (Unless they're in fashion, of course. :-)

I kicked myself for not getting outside in the beautiful fall weather yesterday. I had so much to do inside that I never did make it outside. One of the drawbacks of living in suburbia is a lack of fields and natural surroundings to meander on.  When I step outside, it's sidewalk city.  I'm not complaining, just explaining. There is just less incentive to get outside. We live in a lovely quiet and peaceful neighborhood, and I'm so thankful for that. But I do hope to have a nice peace of land to putter around on one day. ;-)

So what is the point of this post today? Get yourself and your kids outdoors without sunblock at least a 2-3 times a week so they can make vitamin D. The kind our bodies produce is much better than any pill you we take. It's ideal and straight from our Creator! Supplementing with cod liver oil during the winter will help when it's too cold to get outside.

I plan on making a habit of walking the block in the morning and getting some sunshine on my shoulders with my boys. It makes me happy. :)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Modesty Doesn't Mean Frumpy

How to Get Rid of Anxiety

Purging and Surging