We are what we ate

Scanning the Daily Mail, I saw a picture of redheaded lovely Lily Cole (you are invited to look her up, but caution is advisable), under this headline:

White Europeans 'only evolved 5,500 years ago after food habits changed'

which means, in part:

People in England may have only developed pale skin within the last 5,500 years, according to new research.

Scientists believe that a sudden change in the diet around that time from hunter-gathering to farming may have led to a dramatic change in skin tone to make up for a lack of vitamin D.

Farmed food is lacking in vitamin D and while humans can produce it when exposed to the ultraviolet light in sunlight darker skin is far less efficient at it.

and also

And the particularly pale skins of people in Scandinavia may have evolved to maximise the amount of Vitamin D that could be produced, the research suggests.

So thank farming for blondes!