VITAMIN D: IT’S IN THESE FOODS!

VITAMIN D: IT’S IN THESE FOODS! – Our body can produce most of its own vitamin D when the skin receives adequate sunlight. On the other hand, the coverage of requirements through food is relatively low: only a few foods contain significant amounts of the sun vitamin. Learn more about vitamin D in food and how to prepare it properly here.

Vitamin D: Foods Are Particularly Rich!

Vitamin D is also recognized as the sunlight vitamin. Rightly so: After all, the body can produce it itself from sunlight. So in summer we cannot avoid going outdoors regularly if we do not want to risk a vitamin D deficiency.

If you let the sun shine on your skin regularly, you will also replenish your vitamin D stores. The body feeds on it in winter when sunlight is scarce.

In addition, experts recommend eating foods with vitamin D on a regular basis – even if nutrition only plays a small part in meeting your needs. But first you have to know: Which foods contain vitamin D and in significant amounts?

Cod liver oil used to be considered the vitamin D-rich food par excellence. It is a fatty oil extracted from the liver and kidneys of marine animals. In fact, cod liver oil contains a comparatively large amount of the sun vitamin. But it doesn’t taste very good.

Luckily, there are alternatives – albeit not very many. Animal foods in particular have a relevant vitamin D content

How To Meet Your Vitamin D Needs

The suggested daily amount of vitamin D is around 20 micrograms per day. But with what portions of food do you cover this need? Here are some examples:

100 grams of eel

80 to 90 grams of herring

4 egg yolks (e.g. as an omelette)

Anyone who eats animal food usually covers their needs. People who completely avoid animal products have a harder time meeting their vitamin D needs.

With the exception of mushrooms, fruits and vegetables contain negligible amounts. In addition, only vitamin D2 is found in plant-based foods – the less effective, plant-based counterpart to human and animal vitamin D3. The choice of food for vegans must therefore be made with particular care.

Reference Amount: How Much  Does The Body Need?

The estimated requirement for vitamin D is 20 micrograms per day for children over one year, adolescents and adults. With this amount, the concentration of 25-OH vitamin D in the blood can be reached – the storage form of vitamin D. This concentration is considered optimal for health.

With sufficient solar radiation, the recommended daily requirement of vitamin D – and thus also the desired serum concentration of 25-OH vitamin D – can be largely covered by self-production: The body then forms 80 to 90 percent of the required amount of vitamin D in the skin with food significant amounts of vitamin D, such as herring and mackerel, will take care of the rest.

This becomes problematic when the skin is not exposed to enough sun or when the sun is too weak in the winter months for the body to produce vitamin D. Foods that are normally on our menu provide little vitamin D. In adolescents and adults only about two to four micrograms per day, in children even less. This means: In order to get the recommended dose of 20 micrograms per day, you would have to eat two kilograms of Emmental cheese, for example.