Sunscreen Doesn’t Come in a Pill or Jar of Coconut Oil
Sunscreen also has downsides: it can be greasy, annoying when you reapply, and from time to time people will scare you into thinking it’s dangerous. ( It is not. ) But do you know what the advantage is? It is actually sunscreen . There are no do-it-yourself tablets and recipes for coconut oil.
The FDA recently announced that it is taking tough action against companies that market nutritional supplements as having sunscreen properties. In other words, these are items that claim to be pill sunscreen and have names like Sunsafe Rx . Let’s be very clear: sunscreen doesn’t come in pill form, and supplements can’t prevent sunburn or skin cancer, no matter what the label says.
Here are a few more things that, despite what you can read online, are not sunscreens:
- “Good Paleo Diet”
- Sesame oil
- Coconut oil
- Chicken oil
- Homemade blends of oils, beeswax and zinc oxide powder
- Diaper rash cream (yes, it has zinc oxide in it, but that’s not enough to make it an effective sunscreen!)
- This sunburn-free slush made from carrots.
- Any of the products that Google suggests when searching for “sunscreen pills”.
Until science comes up with a magic sun pill, you can protect yourself from both sunburn and skin cancer by applying real sunscreen and using the time-tested technologies of hats, clothing, and seating inside an air conditioner.