Enjoy the sun (and your beach friends) responsibly.

It’s only the first week of spring, and much of the nation is already swathed in dangerous levels of ultraviolet sunlight. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s UV index, the majority of U.S. states are experiencing UV levels of 6 to 9 on its 1 to 11 scale, interpreted as “high” to “very high.”

And it will only get worse as we move into the dog days of summer.

The repercussions of exposure to such intense periods of UV light include sunburns, premature aging and skin cancer. While many of us think we’re invincible, we need only look at Grandma Jane — who loved her teen days of vacationing in Miami — to see how years of sun exposure at a young age lead to very visible signs of cumulative skin aging.

Like many of the fun things in life, it’s important to wear protection when you’re enjoying the sun. In this case, the best protection is sunscreen. But not all sunscreens are made alike, and some may actually be downright dangerous. Are you jumping from the kettle into the fire? Know what to look for, and what to avoid, the next time you’re shopping for sunscreen.

1. Consider a mineral sunscreen, such as one made with titanium dioxide, over a chemical-based sunscreen. Some of the most common chemicals used in sunscreen may disrupt your hormones and cause allergic reactions, warns the Environmental Working Group.

2. Choose a cream or liquid instead of a powder or spray. Spray or powder sunscreens may increase your risk of inhaling tiny sunscreen particles — consequences currently unknown — and many people who use spray-on or powder sunscreens may not know how to properly apply it for sufficient protection.

3. Verify that it has a minimum SPF of 30. But don’t go overboard. Some researchers say that once you pass the SPF 50 mark, the benefits of increased SPF are minimal.

4. Make sure it’s labeled as “broad spectrum.” Otherwise, the sunscreen may only be blocking out one kind of UV light, such as UVB, while the alternating UVA rays get through and wreck havoc on your skin.

5. Pair the sunscreen to the appropriate activity. If you’re just taking the dog for a walk, you don’t need a sweat- or water-resistant sunscreen. However, if you’re running a marathon, the lightweight, daily sunscreen-enhanced moisturizers on the market may not be enough.

6. Avoid vitamin A additives. While vitamin A may help improve the health of your skin when used alone, its addition to sunscreen might actually raise your risk of skin cancer, warns the Environmental Working Group.

Don’t get duped. Survey some examples of potential greenwashing below, then keep reading to discover five common ways that marketers often use to trick you.

• Snacks: Sunchips look natural, with their “All-Natural” label and marketing language like “Healthier for you. Healthier for the earth.” In fact, their bag claims to be 100 percent compostable in 14 weeks. Yet Consumer Reports magazine tested these composting claims and concluded that after 14 weeks, “the bag barely changed in the compost pile.” Meanwhile, Frito-Lay, the manufacturer of Sunchips, is getting sued over its all-natural ingredient claims because the lawsuit says the chips contain genetically modified ingredients.

• Meats: Hormel’s “Natural Choice” product line boasts that it’s 100% natural with no preservatives. Additionally, it wraps its interior plastic packaging in a recycled, brown paper box that feels earthy-good. While such packaging is very commendable for reducing the overall amount of plastic used (cue the applause), all is not rosy. “Natural meat” doesn’t mean much because the animal can still be legally fed substances such as antibiotics and genetically modified food. Meanwhile, the production of meat in factory farms contributes up to 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

• Cleaning Products: You’ve probably seen ads for Green Works’ cleaning products everywhere, from TV to the walls of subway stations. The ads often revolve around images of the cleaning product nestled in a flower field or in the dappled sunlight of a forest understory. But all that imagery looks good…and means nothing. Some argue that “99% naturally derived” is not the same as truly natural, and that some of its products (e.g., disposable cleaning wipes) are still encouraging a throwaway culture. To say nothing of the plastic packaging.

• Diapers: Glance at the Huggies Pure & Natural diaper box, and you’ll see leaves (lots and lots of green, green leaves!) and big words declaring benefits like “ORGANIC COTTON” and “ALOE & VITAMIN E.” While these are all pluses to an extent, they’re still disposable diapers. And no matter how many green leaves and natural-ish marketing words a company uses, disposable diapers still create problems for the environment. The University of Minnesota reports that such diapers create 7,000 percent more municipal solid waste than cloth diapers, and that while some disposable diaper manufacturers claim their products are biodegradable, “there are no established standards.”

While greenwashed products may be better than other products, they’re still not necessarily truly green. And sometimes, their greenness is outright unverifiable. When surveying an ad or product label, watch for the following tricks:

1. Imagery. Just because a Clorox ad puts a bottle of bathroom cleaner in  the middle of a forest doesn’t mean it’s green. Other similar tricks include using earth- or green-toned colors (e.g., browns, greens, blues) or the use of traditionally eco-friendly design elements, such as leaves added to a logo.

2.Broad, poorly defined claims. For example, a label that blatantly says “earth-friendly” means nothing. The same goes for the ubiquitous “all-natural” label. Formaldehyde is natural…and poisonous.

3. No third-party certification, or certification by an agency or organization that’s owned by the product’s manufacturer. Even worse: seals, medals, awards or certifications by nonexistent organizations.

4. Unnecessary “ingredient-free” claims. For example, some products sport labels today that say “CFC-free,” although CFCs have been legally banned for years. Also watch for “chemical-free.” That means nothing, as everything is a chemical. Instead, it should be more specific, such as “free of synthetic chemicals.”

5. Fake organic terms. Some manufacturers boast the use of organic ingredients on the front of the label, while the back of the label reveals that the organic ingredients are few and far between many synthetic chemicals.

Bonus tip: Fair trade labels are popping up everywhere due to increased consumer awareness of manufacturing and farming practices abroad. But did you know that Transfair, a fair trade licensing organizatin, allows companies to label their product as fair trade so long as the product has as little as 2 percent fair trade content?

Your "whole wheat" pasta may actually be mostly white flour. Che tragedia!

You shouldn’t believe everything people say. Like Rick Santorum saying he isn’t racist (Not!), or Obama saying he doesn’t not not support discrimination against gays (Not!). But you’d think whole grain claims made by bread, cereal and pasta companies would be a little more honest and true. Not!

This week, the Center for Science in the Public Interest is petitioning the Food and Drug Administration in the United States to stop the misleading claims and labeling made by food manufacturers when it comes to whole grains. As many people know, adding whole grains to your diet brings many benefits, including better weight management, a 36 percent reduction in stroke risks, and a 28 percent reduction in heart disease risk. (source: The Whole Grains Council)

To cash in on people’s perceptions, many manufacturers have started adding the words “whole grain” or “whole wheat” to their food products even when it’s hardly the whole truth.

For example, from a report by the CSPI:

• Knorr Lipton Pasta Sides Made with Whole Grains is only 51 percent whole wheat.
• Nabisco Multi-Grain Wheat Thin Chips have only 10 percent whole grains.
• Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Blend Pasta has no whole wheat flour.
• Kellog’s Eggo Nutri-Grain Pancakes Made With Whole Wheat have more sugar than whole wheat.
• DiGiorno Harvest Wheat Rising Crust requires you to eat 30 grams of white flour to get nine grams of whole wheat.

In the end, follow the advice your momma always told you: Don’t do drugs, and read product ingredient lists instead of relying on the marketing or labeling. Always verify that the label only contains 100 percent whole grain products, and watch for ways they try to sneak refined flours past your scrutinizing eyes. “Dead giveaways,” reports the CSPI, are the following terms: “enriched or unbleached wheat flour, semolina flour, durum flour, and rice flour.”

1. Down a Pint of Beer

Approximately 200,000 people in more than 16 research studies were analyzed by the Fondazion di Ricerca e Cura in Italy. The researchers found that men and women who drank a pint of beer every day had a 31 per cent lower risk of heart disease. That may be because beer raises your body’s levels of “healthy” high-density lipoprotein.

2. Watch a Scary Movie

In Saw, various organs get sliced and diced, but the increased heart rate triggered by horror movies may actually strengthen your heart, according to researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

3. Beans, Beans are Good for Your Heart

Eating a minimum of four servings of beans every week can reduce your risk of various forms of heart disease by 22 per cent compared to people who eat one serving of beans or less per week, reports the American Institute for Cancer Research.

4. Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand

The University of North Carolina found that holding hands or hugging someone for 10 minutes reduces your blood pressure. So go ahead, hug the person next to you. However, avoid any touching that could get you in trouble with the police.

5. Laugh

Laughing “is an active process and may have a direct impact on improving the lining of the blood vessels,” Michael Miller, M.D., director of the Center for Preventive Cardiology, tells the University of Maryland Medical Center. Time to stock your Netflix queue with reruns of Big Bang Theory!

6. Urinate More Often

In an unusual study conducted by the Taiwan University, researchers noted that having a full bladder creates stress that constricts your body’s blood flow by 19 per cent and increases your heart rate, which one of the study’s researchers says could be enough heart stress to cause a heart attack.

7. Sip Some Tea

While green tea gets a lot of positive press, black tea is also rich in antioxidants. Both teas can help reduce blood vessel constriction and protect your arteries.

8. Kill Your Neighbors

Noisy neighbors can be a downer, literally. A study in Germany found that people who lived where nighttime noises reached higher than 55 decibels were twice as likely to experience high blood pressure as those who had quieter evening surroundings. For the record, 55 decibels is the average sound level of a suburban street.

9. Start Your Day with Oatmeal

Oatmeal’s high fiber levels scrub your arteries clear, raise your levels of good cholesterol and reduce your levels of bad cholesterol. Make your breakfast even more heart-healthy by adding fiber-rich fruit such as a banana.

10. Stop Reading This Article

A study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that people who spent more than four hours a day sitting around in front of their computer or TV had a 125 per cent increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Guy 2: A veggie burger.

Guy 1: Dude, that’s so…gay.

Many of our male readers out there who opt to reduce or eliminate animal products from their diet have likely come across criticism that eating meat is manly and that avoiding it infers something about their masculinity. It doesn’t matter that world-renowned male athletes like Brendan Brazier are vegans. As is celebrity Alec Baldwen, NFL star Tony Gonzalez, and all of the members of the punk rock band Rise Against. It also doesn’t matter that the New York Times profiled vegan bodybuilding as one of 2012’s trends.

Enter Ryan Henn. Filmed in the heart of Sin City, Ryan interviews several men for last year’s Vegans in Vegas event. The film is a few months old, but it’s still as timely as ever. “I lost over a hundred pounds,” says one man. “My eyesight corrected itself within just a few months. My diabetes went away in eight months. It was cool.”

Cool, indeed.

There’s nothing manly about eating meat from Ryan Henn on Vimeo.

Running is as much about eating the right foods as it is about pulling on the right pair of shoes and choosing the right running route. Knowing what to eat and when to eat it can give you that run-enhancing boost you need to defeat a bad case of the Mondays — or Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays…

1. Watch the clock. Avoid eating large meals four hours or less before running. Also avoid eating high fiber, high fat, high protein or spicy foods. Such foods can create stress in your digestive system and make running — or any kind of intense physical activity, for that matter…swimming, sex, shuffleboard with grandma — difficult.

2. Carbo-load…correctly. Everyone knows that carbohydrates replenish glycogen stores in your muscles, giving you the fuel you need when exercising. But many people do it wrong, and I know several people who actually eat chocolate candy bars before their run because they think it’s “healthy.” While a Snickers bar might work for Betty White, it won’t work for you. Start carbo-loading 72 hours before your run, and aim to eat four grams of carbohydrates for every pound that you weigh.

3. Fuel up in the middle of your workout. Typically, you’ll need to eat 60 grams of carbohydrates and hour before you run for runs that last up to two hours. For anything longer than that, you’ll need to refuel during your run so you can  complete your workout as strong as you started it. Try an energy gel or energy chew. You can also make your own portable, natural energy drink by swirling 24 ounces of filtered water with a teaspoon of lime juice, two teaspoons of honey, eight teaspoons of cane sugar and 1/3 teaspoon of sea salt.

4. Chow on recovery foods. Many people focus on how they eat before they train and pay no attention to their recovery meal. This post-workout meal is critical because it can improve your fitness returns, battle fatigue and pain, and speed up total recovery time. The less time you need for recovery, the more time you can spend pounding the pavement. Try a protein- and carb-rich meal that’s alkaline-promoting, such as a hemp protein shake. Or, have some lean protein like a chicken breast. Whatever you choose, try to chow it down within 60 minutes of completing your run.

“Here’s some advice. Stay alive.” — Haymitch Abernathy in Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games

Every year, Americans spend $40 billion on dieting, estimates the National Eating Disorders Association. That’s enough money to pay Snooki — who recently came under criticism for promoting a potentially dangerous diet pill — to appear in 1.3 million Jersey Shore episodes (at her current rate of $30,000 per episode).

While diets can have their proper place in terms of helping people achieve healthy, stable weight goals, many individuals turn to fad diet products and risky diet plans. Don’t play hunger games with your health, and avoid some of the most popular diets that medical experts have warned could be risky for your long-term wellness.

The Master Cleanse

This detox diet, which commands followers to eat no food while drinking laxatives for a minimum of 10 days, was first “invented” in the 1940s. Today, it enjoys continued success, probably propelled forward by purported use among celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan — who we all want to emulate, obviously. However, the Master Cleanse could be a master health hazard. The Harvard Medical School warns that the Master Cleanse and its detox diet counterparts lower your metabolism and can lead to “rapid weight gain” once normal eating resumes, while also potentially causing impaired bowel movements, depleted electrolytes and dehydration. Fun? It gets funner. An American Dietetic Association representative tells MSNBC that such diets could cause muscle breakdown and major vitamin deficiencies. So, save your laxative consumption for your next colon exam.

The Cabbage Soup Diet

Cabbage is a rich source of vitamin A and vitamin C, as well as polyphenols and anti-inflammatories. But as Jesus said, “Man can’t live on cabbage alone.” Or something like that. This diet is “strongly disapproved of by most medical experts and the American Heart Association,” warns the University of Wisconsin, while Providence Health Services — where this diet purportedly originated at — says it has “major concerns” and does not endorse such eating practices. While cabbage is healthy, eating only cabbage for the diet’s duration can create several caloric and nutrition deficiencies. You may be better off just eating your Cabbage Patch dolls.

The Macrobiotic Diet

Amber waves of grain, Amber Alert for your health. This dietary plan, which focuses on eating mostly grains, started taking formation as early as the days of Hippocrates. But Hippocrates is dead, and you could be, too, especially if you follow this diet plan for too long. The University of Texas notes that “individuals will experience a lack of calcium, Vitamin D, protein, iron and other essential vitamins.”

Low-Carb Diets

The claim that Dr. Atkins, creator of the famous low-carb diet that bears his name, died of a heart attack is an urban legend. But what’s really legendary are the potential health risks related to his diet. A study published in the Preventive Cardiology medical journal concludes that the long-term effects of a low-carb, high-protein diet includes reduced cardiovascular health, plus “impaired renal, bone, and gastrointestinal health.” Meanwhile, the American Heart Association and American Dietetic Association have all warned of the potential health risks related to low-carb dietary practices.

How to Spot a Fad Diet

The above examples are, alas, the tip of the proverbial iceberg that’s just waiting to sink your health goals. When you’re evaluating a diet, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does this diet overemphasize a certain food category?

2. Does it guarantee rapid weight loss? (You should lose no more than two pounds a week)

3. Does it not include any recommendations for physical exercise?

4. Would Snooki do it?

As always, talk to your doctor before changing your eating practices. However, knowing some of the most common dangerous diets out there, as well as what questions you should ask yourself, arms you in your battle against poor health guidance.