The sun has many benefits – it’s essential for health and wellbeing, allowing us to make vitamin D, set our body clock for sleep and utilise it for key biological processes in our body. Sunlight supports our bone health, helps with our cardiovascular system, boosts the immune system, regulates our mood, reduces inflammation, minimises the risk for infection, relieves pain, helps us relax and feel happy and protects us from cancer, just to name a few!

The lack of adequate sunlight exposure, coupled with increasing overexposure to artificial blue light from digital devices and artificial lighting at night, is contributing to a wide range of chronic and severe health issues at all ages. Blue light from screens suppresses the production of our sleep hormone melatonin and has been linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and even cancer. Artificial lighting sources have very different frequencies, intensities and are static, compared to sunlight. The wrong type of light at the wrong time of day can accelerate cell damage, affect our sleep and circadian rhythm and ultimately our physical and mental health.

This book aims to educate about The Sunlight Diet, an easy and free approach to optimise our healthspan and happiness – with simple actions we can take every day. We think about diet and exercise for better health but just as important is our exposure to light every day, through our eyes and skin, indoors and outdoors, daytime and night time. Your health is in your hands!

Dr Jenny Livanos is a holistic optometrist and nutritionist with over 25 years of experience in holistic eye care, nutrition and light coaching. She has had worked in various clinical settings in optometrical practices, co-run a few natural health centres and has studied complementary and alternative approaches in preventing and treating disease. She researches, consults and writes about vision and general health. Jenny practices in Sydney, gets her sun exposure every day and wears her blue-light blockers every night.