Vitamin D - The Vitamin du Jour

Vitamin D – the “vitamin du jour” as I like to say. It certainly is in the news almost every day and it even has its very own “council” (The Vitamin D Council). I don’t think any other vitamin has achieved that status! Let me cut through the clutter for you – Vitamin D is very important and most of us don’t get enough of it! It is that simple.


When we really dive deeper we learn it is a bit more complicated. There are two points I want to make clear to you. If you want more details I urge you to go to the Vitamin D Council web site. First, there are different “forms” of Vitamin D – and the form we need, particularly if supplementing or added to food is D3. The second, Vitamin D is “fat soluble.” That means you need fat for it to be properly utilized by the body. I pose a simple question – has the low fat diet contributed to our Vitamin D shortages? If you take your Vitamin D pill (even if it is D3) with your cereal and skim milk for breakfast are you really getting anything from it?

Here are some of the key actions of Vitamin D. It helps develop bones and teeth, promotes health bone density, supports healthy muscle tissue and thyroid function. It also supports the heart and kidneys, and the nervous, integumentary, and immune systems. Pretty much the whole body.

Where do we get Vitamin D? The number one source is the Sun. It is also found in eggs, fatty fish (mackerel, salmon, sardines, tuna, and trout), liver, and milk products.