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Some people are so worried about sunscreen that they're swapping SPF 50 for beef tallow. Yes, the fat traditionally used to make roasted potatoes is now being promoted online as something you can spread on your skin before going into the sun.

Coconut oil and olive oil have their supporters, too. Meanwhile, other social media creators warn that conventional sunscreens contain dangerous chemicals, interfere with our hormones or prevent us from making vitamin D. Some even claim sunscreen causes cancer.

But how much of this is backed by science? And what happens to your skin when you swap a tested sunscreen for something from the kitchen cabinet?

In the latest episode of Strange Health, The Conversation's podcast about unusual health and wellness trends, I investigate the anti-sunscreen movement with my co-host Dan Baumgardt, a practicing general practitioner and lecturer at the University of Bristol.

There's a revealing twist to the social media story. A 2026 study examining 971 popular sunscreen-related TikToks found that almost 87% promoted sunscreen use. Only 6% included health-related criticism. Yet videos devoted to criticism attracted substantially more likes, shares and comments than those focused solely on promotion.

Our guest is Charareh Pourzand, a professor of pharmaceutical biology at the University of Bath, who has spent more than 30 years investigating how sunlight affects skin.

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