Healthy Foods and Vitamin D
Most people simply aren’t aware of how important Vitamin D is and what a big difference it can make in your life. Vitamin D affects all different parts of our bodies and it can help prevent cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, heart disease, muscle pain, bone loss, and quite a few other major problems. What’s scary is that most of the population - 70 to 80 percent- is actually deficient in this important vitamin. This vitamin is almost completely absent from our food supply - even in fortified foods. Not having this vitamin lowers levels of good cholesterol and can put children at risk for diabetes. Two recent studies in the journal Pediatrics found that 70 percent of American kids aren't getting enough vitamin D, and this puts them at higher risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and lower levels of good cholesterol. Low vitamin D levels also may increase a child's risk of developing heart disease later in life. Overall, 7.6 million, or nine percent, of US children were vitamin-D deficient, and another 50.8 million, or 61 percent, had insufficient levels of this important vitamin in their blood. The average blood level of vitamin D was 25 ng/dl for Caucasians and 16 ng/dl for African Americans. The optimal level is 45 ng/dl and requires about 3000-4000 IU a day of vitamin D3 -- 10 times current recommendations. If our whole population achieved a minimum level of 45 ng/dl, we would have 400,000 fewer premature deaths per year. There would be a reduction of cancer by 35 percent, type 2 diabetes by 33 percent and all causes of mortality by seven percent.
The answers are pretty clear here - Vitamin D is a big deal and we just aren’t getting enough of it. Vitamin D has an amazing impact on your health and the function of your cells. It can reduce the growth of cancer but it also controls our genes. Vitamin D also prevents flu, colds, infections, and can make a significant difference in the health of people during cold winter months. So it’s obvious how important this vitamin is to our health but why aren’t we getting enough of it?
A big issue is that we live in a different world than we used to. Most of us (from students to professionals) spend the large amount of their days indoors under artificial lighting and blocked by windows which prevents us from getting the amount of Vitamin D we need from the sun. If you live in a northern climate you’re definitely no getting enough sun, especially during the winter, and you’re also probably not eating enough of the sources of Vitamin D like fatty wild fish or cod liver oil. On top of all of that people who wear lots of sunscreen or clothing that covers up large amounts of their body can find it even more difficult to the amount of Vitamin D they need - especially if they have a darker skin tone because these ethnicities require more Vitamin D on top of everything else.
The obvious answer is a supplement but most people get confused about how much Vitamin D they should be getting in their diet. The government currently recommends a level of 200 to 600 IU of Vitamin D a day and says that we shouldn’t have any more than 2,000 IU of it a day but this may not even be close to the amount we need for ideal levels of health. The best way to do it is to average between 2,000 and 4,000 IU a day but more for the first few months if you have a deficiency that needs correcting - that should be done under the supervision of a doctor though. Make sure you’re taking the right amount and the right type of Vitamin D and keep a close watch on it until you are in the optimal levels.
Overall Vitamin D is extremely important and should be paid close attention to because of it’s unique abilities to help us prevent so many types of disease. Make sure that you are getting all of the Vitamin D you need and remember to eat foods that are high in it as well!