Vitamin D is Real

Posted on Jul 14th 2009, 09:50 am, under Nutrition

As a young, working professional, there are days when I never see the sun. This no-sun phenomenon, I imagine, never occurs while surfing in the luke-warm waters just off the Costa Rican coastline. Anyway, on those few and beautiful days near home where I find myself outside soaking up the rays, my health-conscious, self-preservation taught habits kick in and I rub my body over with sunblock.

Sunblock serves well as a UV ray blocker, and just as well as a vitamin D blocker. Vitamin D is an essential fat-soluble vitamin found most abundantly by us humans through synthesis in the skin triggered by the sun’s UV rays, and less abundantly in foods. According to sources on a fact sheet about the vitamin at the Office of Dietary Supplements, “Vitamin D is essential for promoting calcium absorption in the gut and maintaining adequate serum calcium and phosphate concentrations to enable normal mineralization of bone and prevent hypocalcemic tetany. It is also needed for bone growth and bone remodeling by osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Without sufficient vitamin D, bones can become thin, brittle, or misshapen. Vitamin D sufficiency prevents rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Together with calcium, vitamin D also helps protect older adults from osteoporosis.”

If you understand all such health jargon or not, the consensus is vitamin D is important and is too often overlooked and consumed at less than adequate levels. I took a walk around the grocery store the other day to see in which foods I might find such a treasure – it turns out it was more difficult than I thought to find. Reading various package labels on snacks, dried fruits and such, I found many no mentions of our treasure. When I finally made my way to the refrigerated section of juices and milks it struck my eye  - milk! - milk, that is, fortified with vitamin D. It wasn’t until later on the internet that I discovered vitamin D is found naturally in buttermilk, cheese, cream, eggs, fish, goatmilk, meat fats and organ meats, mushrooms and sour cream.

You might ask, what about my Flintstone-esque multivitamin that I happily chew each day? Well, I answer, one adult serving of Flintstone gummy vitamins does in fact contain the recommended daily amount of vitamin D - 400 international units (IU).

So with this said, I will strive to gather my very own treasure by making sure to spend a few minutes naked in the Costa Rican sun before rubbing down with my very important blockers…or perhaps just doing a better job of drinking milk and eating fish regularly. Others may take the reasonable approach of ensuring that vitamin D, be it in Fred, Barney, Wilma or someone else, is included in their daily