Laudator Temporis Acti

To the passages collected here and here, add Columella, De Re Rustica (preface 16, tr. H.B. Ash):

And presently, then, that we may come to our gluttonous feasts in proper fettle, we steam out our daily indigestion in sweat-baths, and by drying out the moisture of our bodies we arouse a thirst; we spend our nights in licentiousness and drunkenness, our days in gaming or sleeping, and account ourselves blessed by fortune in that "we behold neither the rising of the sun nor its setting."

Mox deinde, ut apti veniamus ad ganeas, cotidianam cruditatem Laconicis excoquimus et exusto sudore sitim quaerimus noctesque libidinibus et ebrietatibus, dies ludo vel somno consumimus, ac nosmet ipsos ducimus fortunatos, quod "nec orientem solem videmus nec occidentem."

The quotation is from Cato -- see Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 122.3 (tr. Richard M. Gummere):

There may be Antipodes dwelling in this same city of ours who, in Cato's words, "have never seen the sun rise or set."

Sunt quidam in eadem urbe antipodes qui, ut M. Cato ait, nec orientem umquam solem viderunt nec occidentem.

On the health benefits of vitamin D and sunlight, see the series of posts by Dennis Mangan at Mangan's Miscellany, e.g:

• Sunbathing in the UK
  
• Letters to the Press Democrat: Solar Exposure
  
• Excitement
  
• Vitamin D Paradigms and Paradoxes
  
• Vitamin D Resources