Best Sources of Vitamin D

Vitamin D, medically known as calciferol, helps the human body to dissolve fats by helping it in proper absorption of nutrients. It is also important for maintaining the normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorous. Calcium and phosphorous are extremely essential for keeping our bones and teeth strong. Deficiency of Vitamin D can cause rickets, a disease characterized by brittle and soft bones. The best source of Vitamin D is sunlight but there are some foods in which Vitamin D is present in high levels. Before taking a look at these best natural sources of Vitamin D, let us know about some facts about Vitamin D.

Vitamin D Facts

• Vitamin D is known to prevent certain types of cancers, especially breast cancer and prostate cancer, and also helps in preventing obesity.
• Vitamin D is one of those rare Vitamins that is produced by the human body through ultraviolet radiations from sunlight.
• Using sunscreen products block the body's ability to produce Vitamin D by around 95%.
• The amount of Vitamin needed by humans depends on their skin color. Dark-colored people need more Vitamin D than their fair skinned counterparts.
• The human body has a self-regulatory system in place by which it generates only the adequate amounts of Vitamin D, so the possibility of you taking in too much of Vitamin D through sunlight is lesser, however a new report by the US Institute of Medicine has challenged this viewpoint.

The US Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a report on the 30th November, 2010 which provided information on the recommended levels of vitamin D for different age groups. The recommendations were categorized into four groups. These are

1. Adequate Intake
2. Estimated Average Requirement (EAR)
3. Recommended Dietary Allowance
4. Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL)

The report stated that Americans up to the age of 70 need around 600 International Units (IUs) per day and those who are 71 and older, need around 800 IUs per day. The report also stated that too much of exposure to sunlight must be avoided as it can lead to skin cancers, thus contradicting the earlier held belief that too much of sunrays don't make an impact as the body has a self regulation.

Vitamin D Sources

As mentioned before, the dietary sources of Vitamin D are rare. The best way to maintain the adequate levels in the body is exposing your body to direct sunlight daily for around fifteen minutes. As far as foods are concerned, fish and fortified milk is the best source of Vitamin D. Some of the other foods that you can consider are soy milk and rice milk. Other alternative milk are also fortified, so intake of those will also enable you to meet the Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA).

Margarine and wild mushrooms are also high in Vitamin D. The only obstacle in deriving wild mushrooms is that one needs to be a connoisseur to be able to know if the mushroom is edible. Eggs are also thought to contain sufficient amounts of Vitamin D, provided the hens were fed in the right manner.

These were some of the sources of Vitamin D. As you can see that unlike other Vitamins, there aren't too many options, that is why a lot of people are dependent on Vitamin D supplements to achieve the ideal amounts of Vitamin D. But one should be careful while taking Vitamin D supplements as an overdose can create certain health problems. Some of the side effects of Vitamin D are diarrhea, fatigue, loss of appetite, fatigue and nausea. Many researchers are of the view that these supplements act as a "quick-fix" and aid the body temporarily. Nevertheless, you should avoid self medication and consult a dietician who will be able to guide you correctly on this issue. With this, we have come to the end of this article on best sources of Vitamin D. Hope, the information provided will be helpful to you.