February 12, 2021

By Nanette Cameron, RDN

They call Vitamin D the “sunshine vitamin” because sunshine literally gives you vitamin D!  Well, it’s pretty tough to get vitamin D that way right now for two pretty obvious reasons:

1. The pandemic.  We just aren’t spending as much time away from home with restrictions in place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and as a result many of us aren’t getting as much sunlight as we might normally get.  You can certainly spend time outside in a pandemic, but less movement and travel naturally can lead to a little less sunlight, and besides………
2. ……it’s FREEZING out right now.  During the winter we naturally spend less time outside and even when we do we’re bundled up so our skin isn’t absorbing sunlight.

While there is some debate about this, recommendations range for you to get from 800 to more than 2000 International Units (IU) per day of vitamin D and without supplements it’s extremely difficult to get to that level consistently.

So many people are deficient in Vitamin D and it’s very important because of the following health benefits:

• It helps with depression
• It helps absorb calcium to help prevent osteoporosis (which is why dairy milk is fortified with vitamins A & D to help with the calcium).
• It helps your immune system
• It helps prevent heart disease
• It can help prevent obesity

There aren’t a ton of obvious food choices that provide vitamin D either, so as we mentioned we highly recommend you take supplements, and be sure it’s vitamin D3 (not D2).  Without supplements here are your main options:

Sardines

Salmon – fattier fish has more vitamin D in general

Herring – and by the way herring for example has about 216 IUs per 3 oz.  Remember the recommended daily amount is as high as 2000!

Cod Liver Oil

Canned Tuna – 3 oz of light tuna has about 268 IUs

Egg yolk – Grass fed chicken eggs have more at 37 IUs per yolk – not a ton and these are pricier than non-grass fed eggs.

Milk – 115-130 IUs per cup – you would have to drink a lot of milk still not nearly enough (some plant based milk beverages are also fortified with vitamin D)

Not exactly a long list…

You can have your vitamin D levels tested at South Macomb Internal Medicine so you know if you’re deficient.  40-80 ng/ml is the healthy level of D we should have in our blood.  Oh and another tip for when the weather is nicer – the darker your skin color the less your skin absorbs vitamin D from the sun, and any sunscreen blocks it completely which is a bit of catch 22…  You need to protect your skin from too much sun but you won’t get the vitamin D when you do – which once again is why we need to supplement!

So pay attention to your vitamin D, get tested, and supplement!

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South Macomb Internal Medicine

28401 Hoover Rd.  Warren, Michigan 48093

Phone: (586) 276-7530