Your healthy habit: You avoid the sun at all costs
How it can backfire: While seeking the shade helps prevent skin cancer (and wrinkles!), avoiding the sun altogether can leave you depleted of essential vitamin D stores. Low levels of vitamin D have been tied to increased heart disease risk, according to a 2008 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Vitamin D may also help protect against osteoporosis and certain types of cancers.
Instead: As few as 10 minutes of sunscreen-less exposure a day during summer months triggers the production of sufficient vitamin D levels in your body. If sun’s not in your forecast, consider a calcium-vitamin D supplement.
