Spice Hunter

Spices save your skin

Skin cancers are the most common cancers worldwide and by far the most ubiquitous of these tumors are caused by excessive exposure to sunlight.

The sun's ultraviolet rays (UV) are those who are responsible for induction of several processes pre-cancerous skin. Not only do they directly damage DNA but also cause inflammation, excessive production of free radicals and immunosuppression. These factors combine to form a cocktail tumorigenic increasing the risk of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers.

Despite their potentially harmful UVRs also provide essential health benefits, so it is important that human skin is exposed to the sun for limited periods. The most important of these benefits is the involvement of UVB radiation "in producing vitamin D from dehydrocholesterol in the deeper layers of the skin.

There is also evidence that lack of exposure to sunlight is an important factor in the development of diseases such as multiple sclerosis and malignancies other than certain skin cancers.

It is noteworthy that the human body does try to prevent the accumulation of radiation damage and this, by running repair mechanisms at relatively low exposure to radiation.

These processes involve both intrinsic and extrinsic (plant-derived) antioxidants, enzymes and other protective equipment and work compounds as follows:

1. The activation of mechanisms that fight against free radical damage and oxidative stress.

2. Accelerated programmed cell death (apoptosis) of cells pre-cancerous.

3. Activation mechanisms of DNA repair at low levels of exposure to radiation.

There is a dichotomy with regard to UV rays. On the one hand, to support the normal physiological processes, we need a certain amount of sun exposure. However, if we are exposed to excessive amounts of UV and inadequate protection of biological processes, we increase our risk of several types of skin cancer.

It seems clear that, as humans have lived for thousands of years with constant exposure to the sun, our bodies would have adapted strategies to protect against the harmful effects of UV rays while obtaining the benefits thereof. We now know that some of these strategies are only to understand how to improve, we must look back over thousands of years on the role of nutrient dense plant foods play in this regard.

Only a few thousands of years our hunter-gatherer ancestors roamed more or less naked, mostly in sunny areas on the planet. Thank you to a broader ozone layer, they have probably been exposed to slightly lower doses of UV radiation per unit time than we are today. However, they undoubtedly spent long periods of time in the sun as they hunted and gathered plant foods. They also had dark skin that gave them an additional measure (but by no means complete) protection against excessive exposure to UV. There is evidence that they lived well into their sixties and are therefore subject to significant UV exposure for several decades.

protective phytonutrients

The key to the success of our ancestors in the fight against UV damage has been their consumption of a diet rich in phytonutrients. Due to their active lifestyle, the communities of hunter-gatherers consumed a diet high calorific value. The difference between their high-calorie diet and a diet high in calories today is that the former has consisted largely of rich flavor (spicy) foods of plant origin phytonutrient dense while the modern diet is dominated by nutrients relatively bland foods of plant origin deficient.

The nutritional characteristics of plants that hunter-gatherers were consumed different from ours in that they were much more phytonutrients / calorie ratios for the plants we eat today. Those that are available today are usually food plant's energy dense with MU.