You need to eat TEN eggs to get your daily dose

THE official recommended daily dose of Vitamin D is 10mcg or 400 IU (international units), which most of us should be able to get from sunlight on our skin during the summer months.

The vitamin can be stored in our body fat to be released slowly over one or two months. It is extremely difficult to get adequate amounts from diet alone, as shown below . . .

FISH: A 4oz (100g) portion of oily fish such as mackerel or salmon provides more than your daily needs with 12mcg of vitamin D, although official guidelines set out that adults should eat no more than four portions of oily fish per week to avoid low levels of pollutants from fatty fish. Vitamin D levels are thought to be lower in farmed fish.

EGGS: There is 1mcg per egg — you’d have to eat ten per day to meet vitamin D needs. MUSHROOMS: Putting mushrooms in the sunlight for an hour before eating will boost their vitamin D (the skin makes its own vitamin D): a portion (80g) provides very small amounts, ie, fractions of a mcg of vitamin D — but you’d need proper sunlight, and you’d

have to eat many plates of mushrooms to get your daily needs.

CEREAL: There’s 1.3mcg added vitamin D in a small bowl of cornflakes and Ready Brek and some cereals, such as Tesco Malt Wheats, pack 2mcg of added vitamin D in a 40g serving. You’d need to eat five bowls of cereal each day to meet vitamin D requirements, which would mean you’d be consuming 7 tsp of sugar (even before you start sprinkling sugar on top).

RICOTTA CHEESE: This contains five times as much vitamin D as other cheeses, but there’s just a fraction of a microgram of vitamin D in a 100g portion.

MARVEL DRIED MILK POWDER: A pint will provide

1mcg. Soya/almond milk: Some fortified brands contain 2mcg vitamin D in a 250ml glass (check the labels)

MARGARINE/SPREAD: Tesco ‘butter me up’ contains 0.5mcg per 10g portion, Bertolli provides 0.75mcg per 10g.

YOGHURT: There is 2.5mcg of vitamin D in one Frube, but you also get 2 ½ tsp of sugar. An Actimel yoghurt drink provides 0.75mcg in a 100ml bottle, but it also contains a teaspoon of sugar.

DRINKS: One 500ml bottle of Get More Vitamin D fruit-flavoured spring water has 50mcg vitamin D (it is sugar-free and made with natural flavourings).