One for The Girls? Bizarre Bras and The Sun Protection Factor of Chocolate

Do you, like me, enjoy a Sunday afternoon in the garden armed with an MP3 or personal CD player and a good book?  Well, next time you settle yourself down on your sun lounger ensure you have a few squares of dark chocolate to hand!  Recent  research carried out at a private health clinic in renowned Harley Street, London has shown that it may help prevent wrinkles caused by ultraviolet light from the sun.

Apparently if you make it a habit of having just a couple of squares a day you could ward off old age!  This research is also looking into the possibility that it may lower the risk of skin cancer but nothing concrete has come of this yet so “don’t try that at home” and ensure you use a high SPF lotion!

Experiments have indicated that you can’t use just any old dark chocolate but it needs to be very high in flavanols which are antioxidants occurring naturally in cocoa beans.  The study found that those volunteers who ate high flavanol based chocolate could tolerate higher UV light on their skin than those who ate a lower rated variety.

Unfortunately though, chocolate with sufficient flavanols to combat the onset of old age isn’t generally available at your local newsagent.  Seems that by the time I’m able to take advantage of this I’ll be long dead and buried!!  But interesting theory!!

Maybe not the most attractive lingerie in the world, but this Dutch designed bra claims to get rid of cleavage wrinkles when the woman sleeps on her side.

Rachel de Boer who designed it says that it provides cushioning between the breasts to prevent them getting squashed together which, in turn, causes wrinkles.  Apparently this bra has been sold in Holland now for about a year at around £45 a throw (or around £22.50 a boob!) and has now made it available to the rest of Europe via her website and hopes to be able to sell it on our High Streets eventually.

Rachel, who had been an air hostess and so had spent several years in sunny climes, found that the sun had had an effect on her skin and she had begun to notice the cleavage crease.  Having discussed this with a friend, the friend had suggested going to sleep with a cushion shoved into her cleavage so the resourceful Rachel decided to try and come up with a slightly less cumbersome solution! 

The bra is made of Lycra and comes in white or black and fastens at the back.  It’s got no cups but it has a cushion which sits in the middle of the chest.  The padding is filled with an anti-allergenic fibre and the straps can be adjusted to fit a bust between 30 and 42 inches.

Unfortunately for you European ladies out there wishing to purchase one of these wonderful contraptions, I have no website address so, for the time being, I’d suggest waiting for them to come into your local M&S and making do with a cushion secured by a bit of string!!