3 ms·
Access to sugar has increased many-fold over human history. The incidence of sunlight exposure has dropped dramatically.
by darkerside 8y ago
Access to sugar has increased many-fold over human history. The incidence of sunlight exposure has dropped dramatically.
- klyrs 8y agoThe reduction of sun exposure is vicious -- for white people, especially pasty-white hackers like me, it can only take a few minutes to burn. So the medical community recommends we stay inside and lather up to stay pasty. And take a "pharmacopoeia" for the resulting depression, hypertension, cancer, reduced disease immunity... But if I spend time outdoors year-round, my skin takes on an olive tone, my freckles get darker, and when summer comes around I can enjoy the sun without fear of burns. But that's free health care, and the medical industry makes money hand over fist with that pharmacopoeia.
- wallace_f 8y agoI noticed the same. But I've sought moderate sun not deliberately but because I sense my body tells me to do it. Our emotions can be wrong, but I guess it makes sense we'd evolve some reasonable senses about sun exposure. Something like artificial and abundant sugar would be different since it did not exist. There might be a lot of value in reasonable disobedience of authority and instead listening to your body.
- iliketosleep 8y agoThe other side of the argument is that you might not have visible burns, but you are still being exposed to high-energy radiation that will damage the DNA of skin cells, making you more prone to skin cancer. This risk can be somewhat mitigated by going for regular skin checks as you age. All things taken into consideration, I'm also in the "have fun in the sun" camp.
- supercheetah 8y agoI'm going to give the medical community the benefit of the doubt here, and particularly, the dermatological community. Skin cancer is something in their domain, and so of course it's a big deal for them, but I think they're missing the forest for the trees.