Vitamin D ☀️🐟

The next vitamin in the spotlight is Vitamin D or the sunshine vitamin.

🔍 What is the function of Vitamin D?
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin which acts as a hormone in our bodies, regulating many processes that keep us healthy. Vitamin D has a number of important functions including:

🦴 Helping to balance the levels of calcium and phosphorus in our bodies, which are needed to form our bones and teeth
💪 Helps our muscles contract
🧠Helps our nerves carry messages between the brain and the body
🦠 Helping the body’s natural defence against illness and infection (the immune system) work properly

🥣 Where does it come from?

☀️ From about late March/early April to the end of September, most people should be able to make all the vitamin D they need from sunlight. The body creates vitamin D from direct sunlight on the skin when outdoors. But between October and early March, we do not make enough vitamin D from sunlight.

You can also get Vitamin D in a small number of foods including:

🐟 oily fish such as salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel
🐄 red meat and liver
🍳 egg yolks
🧈 fortified foods such as some fat spreads and breakfast cereals

🥄 How much do you need?

The amount of vitamin D adults aged 19 to 64 need is:

♂️♀️ 10µg a day for men and women

🥄 As Vitamin D is found only in a small number of foods, it might be difficult to get enough from foods that naturally contain vitamin D and/or fortified foods alone. So everyone, including pregnant and breastfeeding women, should consider taking a daily supplement containing 10µg of Vitamin D.

🦴 Fun Fact 🦴

Vitamin D and calcium are the perfect partners for bone health. Our bodies need calcium to build strong bones, enable clotting and muscle contraction. Vitamin D is responsible for transporting this calcium around the body and enhancing its absorption.

Let us know in the comments below how useful this information is for you.