Vitamin C Forum

Diminishing Sunlight

We don’t have the sunlight we once did. While news headlines focus on the dangers of sun exposure, warning us about ozone depletion and ultraviolet (UV) rays, the real danger is that we don’t have enough sun. That’s right; sunlight has diminished greatly over the past couple of centuries.

What we think of as clear skies today are nowhere near as bright blue as they used to be. If you traveled back in time to a sunny day 200 years ago, you would be shocked—it would be like cleaning off smudged eyeglasses to reveal a crystal-clear world.

Pollution and chemicals now fill the skies. I’m not talking about clouds that block the sun; I’m talking about a white haze filled with barium that makes the sky dimmer and keeps the full strength of the sun from getting through. Given the widespread panic about the threat of UV rays to our health, less sunlight may sound like a good thing. I assure you, it’s not.

Over the past decade in many parts of the country, critical growing periods during the summers have become colder, with lower yields on certain crops. While there are still hot periods in the summer, these temperature dips at key moments are disruptive to plant life. Less sunlight getting through is the culprit.

Our skies are no longer as clear as they once were, and that’s taking its toll on the economy, not to mention the health and livelihoods of so many in the U.S. Similar negative effects of inadequate sunlight are threatening other parts of the world. It’s rare in many places now to see a brilliant blue sky. Instead it’s an almost smudgy haze caused by pollutants such as vaporized metals, radiation, and chemicals that are diminishing sunlight—even when technically, there may not be a cloud in the sky. This filmy haze that overtakes the sky is different from smog, which settles closer to the ground.

And it’s not just a problem for plants. While we focus on vitamin D as the only benefit of the sun, scientific research has yet to discover that like plants, our bodies perform a type of photosynthesis. We rely on the sun to increase production of various enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients to revitalize our body systems. Less sun means a shorter life span, and no proper sun exposure means we cease to exist. If we’re going to stay safe in the face of this, we have to know it’s happening.

William, Anthony. Medical Medium Life-Changing Foods: Save Yourself and the Ones You Love with the Hidden Healing Powers of Fruits & Vegetables (pp. 13-14). Hay House. Kindle Edition.

Light-Filled Foods

The Holy Four aren’t just filled with the nutritional components that have been discovered by science. They are rich with undiscovered elements that are fundamental to counteracting the challenges we face here on earth.

As I mentioned in the previous chapter, we’re in a bad place when it comes to sunlight. Far more of it used to get through to us; now a white haze of pollution in the sky blocks the sun’s full force. If you’ve ever lived through winter in a cold, dark climate, or had a job that kept you indoors and away from windows all day long, you know what light deprivation feels like. It’s not pretty. Your mood drags, your skin pales, your immune system loses oomph—and those are just the easily detectable effects.

Sunlight has countless other undiscovered benefits for your emotional and physical health; it does much more than boost vitamin D. With a little sunshine, we get more vitamin A, more B vitamins, more nutrients as yet undiscovered by science; our anxiety can lower, depression can ease. Getting sunlight on your skin even enhances the process of digesting food and methylating nutrients to convert them for your body’s use.

So what can we do about less sunlight getting through? Given that dimming light is a reality of our changing world, how do we adapt? We bring more light into our lives—in the form of the Holy Four food groups. As these vines and trees and other plants grow, they absorb sunlight, collect it, concentrate it, and—when we ingest these roots and shoots and leaves and fruits—pass it along to us. While ever murkier skies and other changing aspects of climate are making it harder for crops to produce at their full potential, the fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, and wild foods that do make it are strong. They are fighters. They are built for endurance. They have used sunlight to its full advantage, and they contain its sacred magic. All of this is for you.

Historically, we understood this. An orange in a Christmas stocking was once a most valuable gift. We knew that underneath that peel, the sweetness and light we’d find was like nothing else on earth. Today, if a kid reaches into a stocking to find a navel orange, you’ll probably see disappointment on her face; fruit just isn’t the novelty it once was. It’s no less powerful, though. It’s time to connect to the knowledge of our predecessors, to reclaim whole plant foods as the miracles they are. Better yet, we can take it a step further. Whereas our ancestors who lived far from citrus groves had to settle for one lonely orange at the holidays, most of us today aren’t limited in the same way. We live near grocery stores that cart in truckloads of fruits and vegetables year-round. Snacking on spinach, no matter the season, can fuel you with renewed purpose. Tanking on a bowl of tangerine wedges, the juice running down your chin and making your fingers sticky, can alter your vibration. Eating a mango in your darkest hour (literally or figuratively) can turn your life around.

When we can’t get the sunlight from outside of ourselves, it’s time to adapt our approach. Taking in these foods is taking in sunlight. Our cells absorb the light, and it radiates throughout our bodies and brains, emitting its energy and life force. You can look high and low, and you will not find a truer answer for how to cope with our changing world.

William, Anthony. Medical Medium Life-Changing Foods: Save Yourself and the Ones You Love with the Hidden Healing Powers of Fruits & Vegetables (pp. 24-25). Hay House. Kindle Edition.