HOW TO GET ENOUGH VITAMIN D DURING WINTER
Make time in the middle of the day to go outside and soak up some much-needed sunshine
MOST people can make enough vitamin D from sun exposure during the summer, but for many it’s much harder in the winter because people bundle up indoors from the cold.
During the cold season, many find it difficult to get enough sunlight and that poses a risk to people’s vitamin D levels.
Kelly Scholtz, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Association for Dietetics in South Africa, breaks down why we need vitamin D and how we can make sure we get enough of it:
What do our bodies need vitamin D for?
Vitamin D works like a hormone in our bodies and has an important effect on many of our biological systems.
Examples include calcium absorption and maintenance of suitable calcium levels for optimum brain development, muscular contractions, cardiovascular health, regulation of blood pressure, normal bone formation; regulation of the immune response; facilitation of insulin secretion in the pancreas; and regulation of healthy cells in our skin, breast tissue, lungs, colon and prostate.
How can we get vitamin D in winter?
Since there are very few foods that naturally provide us with concentrated vitamin D, our best chance of making sufficient vitamin D is to expose our skin to a few minutes of midday sun so that our bodies can make their own.
Many countries are too far from the equator to have enough sunlight exposure during winter.
Even in in South Africa, Gauteng gets a longer window of sunlight than Cape Town simply because it is further north.
It’s important for everyone to get outside for 15 to 20 minutes at lunchtime, even if all that is exposed is your face and lower arms.
This is obviously not possible for everyone, and lockdown made it impossible for many people, so look at other options. Routine supplementation with high doses of vitamin D is not recommended because high levels of vitamin D in the blood are toxic.
Therefore, if unable to get outside, I suggest a low-dose supplement and a focus on food sources to get close to our recommended daily amount of approximately 600IU. A higher dose supplement should only be taken with guidance from a health professional after blood tests show a true vitamin D deficiency.
There is an app called D Minder that can help with getting enough (and not too much) sun exposure to make vitamin D at your exact latitude. It allows you to input things like your skin type and how much skin is exposed at the time.
Foods rich in vitamin D
Fortified milk and breakfast cereals. Button mushrooms do not contain vitamin D when they are bought in the shop, but when they are sliced and placed on a baking sheet in the sun, they make significant amounts of vitamin D.
Oily fish such as trout or salmon, as well as cod liver oil. Canned tuna and sardines, beef liver, egg yolks and cheese provide small amounts.
Vitamin D plays many roles in the body, so a deficiency could cause many health concerns, but it’s important to remember that high dose supplementation of any micro-nutrient is only going to have a positive effect if there is an existing deficiency in that nutrient.