Ben Greenfield skips sunscreen most days because it blocks vitamin D production and some ingredients like oxybenzone disrupt hormones. Wear it only when you're in direct sun longer than an hour. He uses fragrance-free formulas without oxybenzone or retinyl palmitate, or makes his own with zinc oxide and coconut oil.
Hi, I'm Ben Greenfield and I want to tell you why I only rarely use sunscreen. But the situations where sunscreen use would actually be something that would be pretty smart for you to do. Now, one of the first reasons why I don't use sunscreen very much is because most people, including myself, are deficient in vitamin D or have been tested to be deficient in vitamin D. Now you can certainly fix this with with a high dose vitamin D supplementation or you can also get out into the sunlight more so you naturally convert more of your body's components into active vitamin D. Now, vitamin D is important because it's a hormonal precursor. So if you're deficient in vitamin D, not getting enough sunlight, not getting enough vitamin D in your diet or from supplementation, then you're going to be likely to be deficient in important things like testosterone and progesterone and the ability of your cells to build their cell walls, the ability of you to be able to build healthy chol. Cholesterol. Vitamin D is important for so many things. And it's kind of a pity that every time we go out into the sun, we're covered in sunscreen and blocking our ability to actually get vitamin D, especially those of us who may spend more time indoors and rarely get out into the sun anyways. So that's one reason why I'm very careful with sunscreen use and I generally don't wear it when I'm outdoors, except in the situations where I'm going to tell you about in just a second. Now, a few other issues with sunscreen. You're going to find what are called oxybenzones in many, many forms of sunscreen. And oxybenzones are hormone disruptors. That means that they can mimic the effects of a lot of hormones in your body. They can be carcinogenic. I've talked about before on my Ben greenfieldfitnessgut.com podcast about estrogen dominance, for example, and how it can cause guys to get man boobs or women to gain weight more quickly, especially as they get older. And that's among other things, one of the things that can happen with sunscreen use, specifically sunscreen that has oxybenzones in it. Now, another issue with a lot of sunscreens is what's called a retinyl palmitate. And you may have heard before, and research has proven this, that wearing sunscreen in some situations can actually increase your risk of skin cancer more than it can decrease your risk of skin cancer. It's ironic. I know, but it's true. And one of the reasons for that is because when you combine retinal palmitate on the skin along with your UV rays from the sun, you can actually increase your risk of skin tumors. So two big issues there with a lot of sunscreens is the oxybenzone and the Retinyl palmitate. So you combine that with the fact that you're wanting to avoid vitamin D deficiency, and you've got a lot of reasons to avoid using sunscreen in many situations. Now, when do I use sunscreen? Whenever I'm going to be out in the sun for longer than about an hour, I will apply sunscreen. When I'm going to be out in direct sunlight for longer than an hour, trip to the beach, long run. Especially for anything like a triathlon or a marathon or any type of sporting event that's out there in the sun, I will wear sunscreen. I'm just very careful about the type of sunscreen that I use now. Right now I've got this Kinesis stuff, and this is something that doesn't have Oxybenzones in it. It's. It doesn't have retinyl palmitate in it. Now, as you may have seen if You've watched the YouTube Ben Greenfield Fitness channel, I do make my own sunscreen. Okay. I'll use coconut oil and jojoba oil and some zinc oxide and some other elements to actually make my own sunscreen. However, I recognize a couple things. First of all, a lot of people don't like to make their own sunscreen because it can be a pain in the butt. And sometimes it's more convenient to just buy something that you can, for example, spray onto your hands and rub into your skin just right away. I know that convenience is definitely a selling factor for a lot of folks. So the reason that I'm letting you know about Kinesis is they sent me a bottle to try. I used it in my last triathlon. Did not burn at all. I was happy with it. I'm happy that it doesn't have oxybenzones or retinyl palmitate in it. So it's something that I would use in that case where I'm out in, in the sunlight for more than an hour or doing something like a triathlon or a marathon or something of that nature. So you could make your own sunscreen using some of the tips that I give you over@YouTube.com BenGreenfieldFitness just go there and do a search for sunscreen. Or you could use something like this Kinesis. And they're actually a very, very environmentally aware company. And they go through a lot of trouble to make sure that they have a very small carbon footprint. And that's another reason why I would include them in a video like this is I am a fan of Kinesis for that reason. So it's K.
So check that out. Make sure that you get their fragrance free spray. Don't get stuff that smells like bananas or coconut or anything like that, because a lot of the fragrances are kind of carcinogenic, too. But like a fragrance free, oxybenzone free, retinol, palmitate free type of sunscreen is going to be your best choice when you are going to be out there for longer than an hour in direct sunlight. So I hope this was helpful to you. And I'm Ben Greenfield from BenGreenfieldFitness.com signing out.
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