Zark (Emerald City, The Land Of Oz) on 05/17/2016
I was in quite a bit of pain from sunburn and a lady near to me said she used to get sunburnt all the time when working in the construction industry (one of the most male dominated professions I imagine..). She said their remedy of choice was Greek Yoghurt. She was quite specific in that it should be real Greek Yoghurt and none of that sweet junk if you want this to work. She said it works straight away. I reckon it should be sour so as to maximise lactic acid, so the older batches are presumed to work better.
Working on the principal that it was lactic acid, I applied kombucha to the sunburn, using tissue paper to dab it on (as I didn't have yoghurt in the house). Success! I took photos and could see a reduction in redness within 10 minutes. It is really quite noticeable. The swelling has greatly improved too.
I suggest that sauerkraut juice would also be a nice and easy one to try.
(PS: The she also recommended aspirin for reducing swelling. But I really wanted to focus on cultured foods as that is more in keeping with the spirit of this website.)
Replied By Zark (Oz) on 01/08/2022
So that's confirmation, lactic acid is the key ingredient that alleviates sunburn. This can be found in:
Sour yoghurt (eg Greek Yoghurt), sauerkraut, kombucha, kimchi, kefir, and other sour cultured dairy such as sour cream
Replied By Michael (New Zealand) on 01/09/2022
On the rare occasions we suffered from sunburn as children, we had no fancy solutions at hand and the adults seemed to think that it served us right and viewed it as some sort of appropriate punishment! Too long lazing on the beach perhaps? What a weird mindset! However.......Also, once, when on a tramping expedition here in the mountains of New Zealand back in the day, I was foolish enough to climb over snowy terrain at nearly 9,000 feet in a pair of shorts. That was lovely, until night time in our alpine hut, when my legs started to throb, swelled up ready to burst and turned an alarming beetroot colour! Yeeks!! They were so hot, that between them they kept the whole hut warm like giant hot-water bottles!! Obviously the sunshine reflecting off the snow did the deed on my legs but there was a delayed reaction.
Nothing I could do for that last one except tough it out until they eventually cooled down (we carried minimal supplies).
However, as kids we would resort to self-help by taking some fresh milk from our window ledge (we had no 'fridge or freezer-very few did) and then soaked a tee-shirt in the milk and wore it for a while. Seemed to work a treat too. Maybe the milk was more substantial - I recall there was a high cream content - there was a small bird, very keen on the cream, that would peck it's way through the tops if you did not use a wooden board over the top of the jug.
Just reminiscing again (no cure I'm told)....
Cheers from Down Under