July 16, 2009
Six of us met for our July Nutrition Update. We had a great discussion about the new research coming out about Vitamin D. We went over a Dairy Council Handout, and watched a video clip from some experts at Iowa State University Extension. Vitamin D has moved into the spotlight in the past few years, not only due to the positive affects it seems to have in the body, but because some experts are trying to raise the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI).
What does Vitamin D for us?
New research has been published to show that Vitamin D not only plays a role in keeping our bones strong, but also plays a role in immunity, cancer prevention, cardiovascular health, and even insulin secretion.
Our current recommended intake for children and adults up to age fifty is 200 International Units (IU) per day. But most health professional are anticipating the recommendation to increase dramatically, due to the host of new research out there.
Where do we get Vitamin D?
We can get some Vitamin D from our diets by eating certain fish, drinking milk, or other Vitamin D fortified foods, but most of us don’t get enough from our diets. So where do we get the rest? The sun. Those of us in the North West can get enough vitamin D by exposing a part of our skin to the sun during the midday hours. Most experts recommend that we spend 10-15 minutes in the sun between 11am and 2 pm. Then we can be pretty sure that our body is getting enough. So all those people telling us to get outside… they’re right! So lets get outside and play; its good for us in more than one way!
October 25th, 2010 at 10:53 am
There are many foods such as fortified milks, eggs as well as many cereals that are great sources of vitamin D. All you have to do is read the label and you have all the information that you need to make the right choice. Seafood also has a lot of the vitamin in it. Foods such as salmon, tuna and any other fatty fish are all good sources of the vitamin.
Adding any fatty fish to your diet is a great natural source of vitamin D. The vitamin is stored in the fish’s body tissues, and there are lots of fish such as herring, wild salmon, catfish, halibut, mackerel as well as farmed salmon that are great sources for these vitamins. A dose of cod liver oil is also another great vitamin D source. You can also get it from non-fish sources such as shrimp, oysters, and cooked eel. There are also other animal sources, beef, liver and eggs.
January 17th, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Why does canned salmon have more vitamin D in it than fresh? Intuitively, a user of canned salmon might conclude it’s the higher fat (skin) and bone content, but the amounts are so small, it seems unlikely this would explain the large discrepancy in vitamin D content between canned and fresh salmon.
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