Get More Vitamin D in Your Diet

1. Get More Vitamin D in Your Diet Vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins you can have. It’s also notoriously difficult to get enough of. Vitamin D-rich food is so important because it helps regulate your body’s absorption of calcium, which is crucial for bone health. If you don’t have enough vitamin D in your diet, your body won’t absorb enough calcium to keep your bones strong and healthy. You can get plenty of vitamin D by exposing your skin to sunlight or by taking a supplement that contains synthetic versions of this essential nutrient. Fortunately, many foods are rich sources of this important vitamin. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend that most adults over age 19 take a daily supplement to prevent deficiency. Here we’ll cover everything you need to know about the best foods for getting more vitamin D in your diet. What is vitamin D? Vitamin D is a pale yellow, a fat-soluble substance produced when skin is exposed to ultraviolet rays from the sun (or with a supplement). This substance plays an important role in regulating calcium and phosphorus metabolism and maintaining strong bones by aiding in the absorption of these minerals into the body. There are actually two types of vitamin D: vitamin D2, which is found in plants and animals that live in the wild, and vitamin D3, which is found in foods like fish and eggs. Vitamin D2 can be found in yeast but not in yeast supplements. Vitamin D2 is not bioactive, so you would need to consume 10 yeast-based tablets to get the same amount of vitamin D as you would from eating just one vitamin D2-rich food item. How to get more vitamin D in your diet Vitamin D supplementation: There are many safe and effective ways to get more vitamin D in your diet. The best way is to increase your intake of vitamin D-rich foods. A healthy diet high in vitamin D food can supply you with all the vitamin D you need. - Eating fortified foods and vitamin D-fortified milk: You can easily add vitamin D to your diet with fortified foods or vitamin D-fortified milk. Vitamin D-fortified milk is the most common way to consume extra vitamin D. You can find it in most grocery stores in the dairy aisle near the regular milk. There are also several brands on the market that are specifically designed for people who want to drink more vitamin D. It’s best to choose a low-fat type of milk so that it doesn’t add

2. too much extra fat to your diet. There are also numerous other foods that are naturally rich in vitamin D. Cottage cheese, salmon, tuna, and vitamin D-fortified cereals are just a few examples. - Other vitamin D-rich foods: Several other types of foods are also high in vitamin D, including mushrooms, mackerel, fortified orange juice, fatty fish, and cod liver oil. Foods to Limit or Avoid If You Want More Vitamin D - Fatty fish, shrimps, and eggs: The good news is that many types of fish, shrimps, and eggs are naturally high in vitamin D. The bad news is that when fatty fish is cooked, vitamin D becomes destroyed. Cooking fats, oils, and proteins also decrease their vitamin D levels. - Mushrooms: Like cod liver oil, mushrooms are a great source of vitamin D, but they contain about half the amount of vitamin D found in fatty fish or shrimps. - Milk alternatives: All milk alternatives contain about 50% less vitamin D than regular milk. - Fortified cereals and orange juice: Most fortified cereals are fortified with vitamin D, but they’re not normally designed to be a major source of this nutrient. Similarly, orange juice is fortified with vitamin D, but it’s not naturally very high in this nutrient. - Nuts and seeds: Nuts and seeds are a great source of vitamin D, but they contain about twice as much fat as fish or fish oil, so you don’t get the same health benefits. - Sweetened drinks: A cup of sweetened drink has only about one-third the vitamin D of milk or a fatty fish serving. - Sun exposure: Although people often associate vitamin D with sunlight exposure, you can actually obtain enough vitamin D from sun exposure in the winter as well. Summary Vitamin D has long been hailed as one of the essential nutrients that are needed for good health, but getting enough of it has been difficult because most people get only a small amount of this vitamin from their diets. Luckily, you can easily get more vitamin D in your diet by eating certain foods, taking a supplement, or using vitamin D-rich moisturizers and topical products. The best foods for boosting your vitamin D include fatty fish, mushrooms, mackerel, and cod liver oil, as well as fortified milk and other vitamin D-rich foods.