Ask Dr Miriam

QI’m confused between the advice to protect your skin from sunshine with sunblock and the need to expose it to get enough vitamin D.

AGetting enough vitamin D to protect your bones requires eating the right food and getting short bursts of daily sunshine in the summer.

Vitamin D is found in a number of foods including oily fish, red meat, liver, egg yolk, fortified breakfast cereals and some spreads, so include as many of them as possible in your diet. Most people’s skin will make vitamin D in the summer but a national survey showed about one in five people don’t have healthy blood levels of vitamin D. Public Health England advises that a balanced diet and some sun would provide enough vitamin D during spring and summer months. But during the winter, the best advice is to take a supplement of vitamin D of 10micrograms a day to protect yourself and this amount is sufficient to meet the needs of 98% of people.