Tuesday Tip - Get Your Vitamin D

This last week I went in for a routine checkup and found out that I was Vitamin D deficient.  In fact, according to my provider, Vitamin D deficiency is quite common.

Who knew?

I sure didn't!  In fact, I knew very little about Vitamin D at all, so I decided to go look up a few things.

First off, what is Vitamin D good for anyway?
 

Benefits of Vitamin D (CDC):

• Promotes calcium absorption
• Needed for growth and remodeling
• Assists in neuromuscular and immune function and reduction of inflammation

That sounds like important stuff, right?  I wondered if I could find a way to just add it to my diet more rather than supplementing it.  So I looked up what foods had Vitamin D. 


Foods high in Vitamin D: (The Daily Green)

• Wild Salmon
• Tuna
• Sole or Flounder
• Fortified Milk
• Fortified Cereal
• Pork
• Eggs
• Mushrooms

Bwahahaha!  Well, gee, now it's no real surprise to me that I'm deficient. I hate seafood and mushrooms. That cancels out, like, half of those foods.

Luckily for me, there's another way to get more because the body is designed to produce Vitamin D in response to sunlight exposure.

Hey!  That's sounds pretty good.  I happen to live in a place that gets tons of sunlight.

Of course, it is still winter and I just don't spend as much time in the sun as I should, so for now I will be supplementing...and maybe drinking a little more milk.

P.S. I wouldn't have known about this if I didn't go to regular checkups, so make sure you visit your doctor's office regularly.

For more information, check out the Vitamin D Council website.