How safe is the sun, and your sunscreen?

As we are thrown into the throes of our summer heat here in AZ, the topic of the sun comes up a lot. I feel, personally, there is a lot of confusion out there. Is the sun, in extremes, harmful? Yes. But with the advent of sunscreen, are we now mostly people with a shortage of the critical vitamin D that our bodies are SUPPOSED to get from the sun? YES! Every one of us should be getting 20 minutes of sun exposure in mid day sun (more if you are darker skinned) WITHOUT SUNSCREEN! Hey, lets remember, we have always had the sun. And while I will admit migratory patterns of humans have probably not always been that smart and there are probably some people who should not be living in California, Florida and Arizona. But that aside, our bodies know what to do with sunlight. The chemicals that are slathered on to "protect us" from the sun is another story. Am I advocating laying in the hot Arizona sun for 5 hours straight with no sunscreen? No, that would be stupid and irresponsible. But what I am saying is that we all NEED some sun, and we also need good protection for longer sun exposure, without the even more harmful chemicals. Chemicals being lathered on the skin is no good. I stand behind MY opinion that cancer has a lot to do with environmental toxins and body PH and less to do with whether you sit in the sun a little each day. Eating a diet high in processed foods, meats, dairy, soda, etc. will create an acidic environment=cancer grows. When you keep your system more alkaline, cancer cannot grow. So, when we are eating primarily raw, unadulterated foods, sitting in the sun isn't such a bad proposition. But, hey remember not too much, find a good quality sunscreen if you are going to be out for example swimming for a few hours, use common sense and ENJOY THE SUMMER! Here is a great article on safer sunscreens. Click HERE to read it.