The Best Sunscreen on Earth: Broccoli Juice

What's better to wear at the beach than an SPF 45 sunblock? If you want to guarantee against burning, try a healthy slathering of broccoli juice.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on June 17 2010

Remember how your parents always urged you to eat your broccoli when you were a kid? They had the right idea: Even if it didn’t appeal to your taste buds, it’s common knowledge that the green veggie is loaded with vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants that help protect against various kinds of cancer and other diseases.

Now, researchers have found another use for this remarkable vegetable – and this time, it’s got nothing to do with the dinner table.

In an experiment performed by scientists at Johns Hopkins University, a number of participants slathered broccoli extract all over their skin before spending an afternoon lying out in the hot sun. The rest of the participants coated themselves in traditional sunscreen – and came back the next day with a very painful sunburn. The subjects who’d rubbed themselves with broccoli extract, however, were no worse for the wear.

As it turns out, broccoli extract could be the best protection from the sun’s rays available on earth. Unlike regular sunscreen, it’s not simply a shield to block dangerous UV rays from entering the skin. Instead, the broccoli extract works within the body itself, creating enzymes that protect the skin from cancer and UV rays. And unlike sunscreen, it doesn’t simply wash off with your next shower – the protection benefits from the special substance last as long as three days.

There’s one problem with broccoli juice that may keep it from appearing on the sunscreen shelf at your local drug store any time soon, though: Scientists haven’t yet found a way to get rid of its deep green hue. But consumers may be willing to overlook that little problem – after all, being a little bit green at the beach is still better than turning lobster-red, right?

Learn more. (The Telegraph)

Filed under: Health and Wellbeing, Science, Weird,

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