Oncologist David Fisher and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School realized that the compound forskolin may be used in a cream to produce melanin in the skin for a truly natural-looking tan, according to the December 2006 issue of Popular Science.The usual alternatives to tanning booths and outdoor tanning never seem to suffice in a tanorexic's search for a healthy tan.

These tanning creams, foams and sprays stain the skin a sickly orange, despite their supposed "golden" finish; however, because melanin is naturally produced in the skin as a defensive reaction against harmful untraviolet rays and causes tanning, forskolin could produce an attractive, natural tan.Tanorexia has become increasingly common, consistent with contemporary ideals concerning beauty. Ironically, people used to think that tanned skin was really quite ugly.

Darker skin tones were exclusively those of the working and lower classes - a brand, if you will, of their hard circumstances laboring outdoors. Back then, being pale was ideal.Quite apparently, our views have shifted dramatically. It almost seems as though we have decided that the unhealthier a person is, the better. Think about it: Society went from idealizing a healthily plump and fair-skinned individual to preferring a really thin and tanned woman. Even the way we perceive hair as beautiful has moved us in a destructive direction.

Many people are bleaching their hair so that most of the hair we idealize is about to fall out of the person's head. The corset used to be the absolute worst. To keep up with the cultural dictations about beauty, women would strap themselves in corsets - maybe breaking a rib or two. Now we're in an entirely different playing field. Women are cutting themselves open, getting bags stuffed into their bodies and having their bodily fluids suctioned out of them.