Vitamin D. How to get your levels up & why you need to start now

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin which is not an essential part of our everyday diets. 80-100% of our vitamin D is sources from exposure to the sun.

After exposure to sunlight our skin produces Vitamin D over a 2-3 day period. If like me your a fair skinned person and are not very keen on spending to much time in the sun, do not despair!

Skin colour plays a role in the amount of vitamin D that that your body has the ability to produce. Fair skinned people have lots of a compound called pheomelanin in their skin, which is much more efficient at making Vitamin D while dark skinned people have a camping called eumelanin, which acts as a sunscreen as is less available to make vitamin D.

For this reason people with lily white skin like myself should theoretically not have to spend as much time in the sun as people with a tan to make the same vitamin D. Researchers estimate that full-body sun exposure in Australia, is equivalent to consuming 15,000 IU orally. Small frequent exposures are also recommended, so don't worry about lying in the sun all day, just 10 minutes here and there should suffice.

Use this time as your breaks from studying or work, and you can also sue it as a time to be mindful, a really special YOU 10 mins throughout the day.

How special is that!

Many different factors effect the ability for someone to produce vitamin D as well, not just skin colour. Age, season, latitude, time of day, part of body exposed to sunlight and use of sunscreen are all contributors. Society pressures, especially in Australia due to our high incidence of skin cancer, often cause us all to cover up. Campaigns such as Slip! Slop! Slap! and school policies like no hat no play all contribute to the countries growing state of Vitamin D deficiency. But don't get me wrong! There is definitely a place for these campaigns and people need to be aware of how dangerous our sun can be.

But its the same as food, everything in moderation!

There needs to be a happy medium between getting enough sun for your vitamin D production and limiting your exposure to prevent sun damage and protect against skin cancer.

If you know that you are not getting enough vitamin D then supplementing might be your best option. Opt for a Vitamin D3 form (this is the form found in foods compared to D2 which is yeast and fungi formed).

Food sources of vitamin D include fish such as herring, salmon, tuna and sardines, beef and liver, butter, eggs and fortified foods such as margarine and milk.

Vitamin D is essential for bone health, bone mineralization and immune function. Vitamin D is a protective vitamin against osteoporosis and autoimmune condition such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and lupus. If you're the type of person that always gets sick then having a Vitamin D supplement might be the missing link, as it is often not the first thing people thick about when boosting up your immune function.

Prepare your body for the future and get out in that sun today! Just make sure you do it safely!