[jpiabrantes]

I always thought there should have been an enormous evolutionary pressure for humans to have different skin tones in different geographies. If sunlight is bad for skin than we should all be black or tanned all the time. However, if you don't live in a sunny area and you have a tan you might not getting enough Vitamin D. Vitamin D must be very important in order to make us evolve to have different skin tones and to tan according to the seasons.

[gerbilly]

The article mentions we store vitamin D for use in the winter.

It also suggests pale skin may have evolved to allow us to produce way more vitamin D in the summer to compensate for cloudy winters.

So, the advice would seem to be, go outside in the sun during the summer if you have pale skin.

[yesenadam]

>Vitamin D must be very important in order to make us evolve to have different skin tones

I'm no expert, but I believe it's thought that white skin must have evolved from sexual selection (i.e. lighter skin was thought more attractive), since it happened too quickly for any other explanation.