Natural Sources of Vitamin D

Vitamins are substances that your body needs to grow and develop normally. Vitamin D is sometimes called the “sunshine vitamin” because it's produced in your skin in response to sunlight. Vitamin D is a group of fat-soluble secosteroids responsible for increasing intestinal absorption of calcium, magnesium, and phosphate, and multiple other biological effects. It manages calcium in your blood, bones, and gut and helps cells all over your body to communicate properly.

Healthy vitamin D levels may help prevent or treat depression, but deficiency is common. Getting vitamin D from sun, food and proper supplementation is key.

Here are 9 signs and symptoms of vitamin D deficiency:

· Getting Sick or Infected Often

· Fatigue and Tiredness

· Bone and Back Pain

· Depression

· Impaired Wound Healing

· Bone Loss

· Hair Loss

· Muscle Pain

· Cancer

Adequate Vitamin D plasma levels can prevent cancer, arm the immune system and correct cancer cells. Vitamin D can also fight inflammation, prevent diabetes, osteoporosis, dementia and more. Vitamin D is often called ´The Sunshine Vitamin´ because it is made by the action of UVB in the sunshine on the cholesterol layers below the skin. Its presence is very limited in foods. Vitamin D can correct cancer cells - "It can adjust almost everything in the cancer cell, switch genes on and off, reduce cancer cell division and it can calm the cells so they settle rather than spread. It seems vitamin D can return cancer cells to a normal and healthy state". (Journal of Cell Biology, Nov 17, 2008: 183 (4): 697-710.)

So how much should you take?

The Canadian Cancer Society recommends that light-skin people should obtain 1000 IU (International Units) per day during fall and winter, and dark-skin people should obtain 1000 IU year-round. A week in the sun lying on a beach will give you about 70,000 IUs of vitamin D. The Vitamin D Council recommends a healthy person has an intake of 2,200 IUs a day. Professor Michael Holick of Boston Medical School believes that people with cancer should take at least 5,000 IUs a day.

Here in this chart, level of vitamin D is clearly mentioned for your convenient:

Vitamin D deficiency is alarmingly rising day after day all over the world. Combating this is becoming a very big challenge as foods rich in Vitamin D is very less and the foods containing Vitamin D also has the minuscule level of the same. While clinical experts suggest a sunlight workout for 30 minutes every day, for many it becomes merely impossible to workout in the morning hours. So here are some foods that are rich in Vitamin D. For those suffering from Vitamin D deficiency, this would slowly help them combat the same and for those who are at the risk of getting it, this could keep you away from the deficiency itself:

· Mushrooms

Boil some set of mushrooms three times a week and have it separately in a bowl like a salad with sprinkled salt and pepper. Doing this for some couple of days a week would take you to the first step of overcoming the deficiency.

· Fish

Next to sunlight, fish is the best source of Vitamin D. Especially the ones like Jack Fish, Catla and Swordfish are rich in Vitamin D content. So enrich your diet with these fishes on alternate days but be very careful about allergies. Consult your nutritionist before taking up anything and especially if you’re taking seafood.

· Soy Milk

Take a glass of soy milk every day morning or night. You can even replace it with the milk you mix with corn flakes. Having it on a daily basis would be tough initially, but do not stop doing it as it would enrich you with the two vitamins as well as iron.

· Yogurt

Getting your vitamin D from sunlight is always a good idea but sometimes you need more to improve your bone strength. Fortunately, yogurt is fully fortified with vitamin D which makes it a great breakfast choice. A cup of yogurt contains around 30% of the required calcium and 20% of vitamin D.

· Spinach

Those who are lactose intolerant may have some trouble keeping dairy in their system. The good news is that there are other sources of vitamin D and calcium that you can eat such as spinach. A cup of spinach already contains 25% of the recommended dietary amount of calcium plus other nutrients like iron, fiber, and vitamin A.

· Fortified cereal

There are some types of cereals that are actually packed with up to 25% of your recommended vitamin D. If you don’t normally get out too much because of your busy schedule or don’t have time to buy salmon and cook it at home, getting your hands on some fortified cereals can actually be good for you.

For Diabetic patients, here are some dietary foods:

Exposing your skin to the sun for 15-20 minutes each day can help increase your body’s own production of vitamin D. You can get your daily intake of vitamin D through Nuts, Eggs, Fortified cereals, Powdered milk & oily fish.