Continued from The Sun Diet. Adding certain foods to your diet may help protect your skin against excess sun exposure.

Brown Seaweed Mice that were fed antioxidants from brown seaweed developed 56 percent fewer skin tumors than untreated mice after repeated exposure to UVB light.

“Eating a meal of sushi or taking the supplement Seanol could provide similar protection in humans, particularly if you also use sunscreen,” speculates Gary D. Stoner, professor of internal medicine at Ohio State University, who published the study in the International Journal of Cancer last December.

“This is one of the strongest inhibitors of UV-induced skin cancer that I’ve seen.”

Fern Extract An antioxidant from ferns (available in the supplement Heliocare) significantly reduced UV-induced DNA damage in nine volunteers in one day, according to a study from Harvard Medical School.

The researchers say that other antioxidants must be taken for months to build up the same level of sun protection.

Fish Oil Eating omega-3 fatty acids (found in fatty fish and supplements) can help prevent nonmelanoma skin cancer, according to a recent review in Cancer Detection and Prevention.

In one study, 21 volunteers who took a pill containing four grams of omega-3 fatty acids daily for three months developed significantly less sunburn and DNA damage when exposed to UV light than 21 other study subjects who took a placebo.