Vitamins and minerals play key roles in your body. Really, we can’t live without them!
Vitamins and minerals work together in order to help support your body in a number of ways. This is everything from your immune system to your metabolism, energy, and so much more.
However, some vitamins and minerals can be hard to come by. Because of this, deficiencies can be quite common. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that more than 2 billion people are deficient in some form of micronutrients (1).
Among these vitamins, vitamin D is one of the most commonly deficient. I was shocked to find out that even I had a vitamin D deficiency! If you do as well, don’t worry.
There are multiple ways to get more vitamin D through your diet and lifestyle than you may realize. I’ll give you all the best recommendations, but first, you should probably know what makes vitamin D so important…
What is Vitamin D and Why is it so Important?
Vitamin D is commonly referred to as the sunshine vitamin. If you don’t know why, it’s because your body absorbs UV radiation and converts it into vitamin D3.
Vitamin D also happens to be a fat-soluble vitamin. This means that it needs a fat source to be present in your body to utilize it effectively.
Your body depends heavily on vitamin D for many functions. These are things like (2):
• Cardiovascular health
• Immune function
• Bone health
…and so much more. Vitamin D can literally make the body stronger by improving the bone density in your body. In addition to that, it can even help with improving your immune system and your mood (2).
Despite all of these benefits, research still shows that over 40% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D (3).
How Much Vitamin D Does My Body Need?
Based on the recommended daily intake, this is how much vitamin D you’ll want to shoot for every day:
Table: Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for Vitamin D (4)
| Age | Male | Female |
| 0-12 Months | 400 IU | 400 IU |
| 1-13 Years | 600 IU | 600 IU |
| 14-18 Years | 600 IU | 600 IU |
| 19-50 Years | 600 IU | 600 IU |
| 51-70 Years | 600 IU | 600 IU |
| 70+ Years | 800 IU | 800 IU |
In all honesty, I believe these recommendations are quite low. Plus, they are only the minimum recommended amounts. Your body can benefit from getting a lot of vitamin D.
Studies show that your body will show no negative effects from taking 10,000 IU daily (6).
Where Can I Get More Vitamin D?
So, where can you get more vitamin D? The good news is that sources of vitamin D are very easy to come by.
The first and easiest way to get vitamin D is to get outside. Your body is trained to use certain UV rays from the sun and turn them into vitamin D to be used by your body. So get up, get out, and get yourself in the sun for at least 20 minutes per day!
One thing you’ll want to remember is that it gets more challenging for your body to make this happen as you age. This can make it more difficult to get the amount of vitamin D that your body needs to be healthy.
Aside from getting vitamin D from the sun, there are also sources of food that are rich in vitamin D.
A lot of animal-based sources of food will have vitamin D in them. For example (5):
• Salmon
• Eggs
• Swordfish
• Some sources of beef
• Milk
These are all nutrient-dense foods that contain vitamin D. Making sure that you get vitamin D in from a combination of all of these sources can be a great place to start.
Clearly, if you follow a plant-based lifestyle, it can be much harder to get vitamin D. Even if you don’t, it can still be difficult to get a sufficient amount of vitamin D as is.
Plus, if you’re deficient, your body may even require more than what’s normally recommended. That’s where a high-quality vitamin D supplement can make a significant difference.
Is A Vitamin D Supplement For Me?
It is not uncommon for vitamin D supplementation to be recommended for nearly everybody. Medical professionals tend to recommend it for a lot of people.
When looking for a good quality vitamin D supplement, I always recommend 2 options:
• Liposomal Vitamin D
• Softgel/Capsules
I recommend these because they are the best quality and are the simplest way for your body to utilize nutrients. If you had to pick between one or the other, I always recommend a liposomal form.
This is because liposomal vitamins are highly bioavailable (7). This means your body can absorb far more vitamin D than through traditional methods such as liquids or capsules.
Basically, liposomal means the vitamin is coated in a protective layer of fat, called a liposome. This can help protect the vitamin from stress and deterioration through digestion (7).
This is why we offer a high-quality Liposomal Vitamin D3 supplement.
Now, before you start taking vitamin D, or anything else for that matter, it’s always best to run it by your healthcare provider. If you have any additional questions, you can also reach out to us too.
We have a full team of NASM Certified Personal Trainers and Certified Nutrition Coaches who are happy to help for FREE! Just give us a call at 1-800-409-9732 or send us an email at CustomerService@1stPhorm.com anytime.
References:
(1). Darnton-Hill, Ian. “Public Health Aspects in the Prevention and Control of Vitamin Deficiencies.” Current developments in nutrition vol. 3,9 nzz075. 21 Jun. 2019, doi:10.1093/cdn/nzz075
(2). Umar, Meenakshi et al. “Role of Vitamin D Beyond the Skeletal Function: A Review of the Molecular and Clinical Studies.” International journal of molecular sciences vol. 19,6 1618. 30 May. 2018, doi:10.3390/ijms19061618
(3). Forrest, Kimberly Y Z, and Wendy L Stuhldreher. “Prevalence and correlates of vitamin D deficiency in US adults.” Nutrition research (New York, N.Y.) vol. 31,1 (2011): 48-54. doi:10.1016/j.nutres.2010.12.001
(4) Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board. Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium and Vitamin D. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2010.
(5). Lamberg-Allardt, Christel. “Vitamin D in foods and as supplements.” Progress in biophysics and molecular biology vol. 92,1 (2006): 33-8. doi:10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2006.02.017
(6). Balvers, Michiel G J et al. “Recommended intakes of vitamin D to optimize health, associated circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, and dosing regimens to treat deficiency: workshop report and overview of current literature.” Journal of nutritional science vol. 4 e23. 25 May. 2015, doi:10.1017/jns.2015.10
(7) Shade CW. Liposomes as Advanced Delivery Systems for Nutraceuticals. Integr Med (Encinitas). 2016 Mar;15(1):33-6. PMID: 27053934; PMCID: PMC4818067
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