'Sunshine, not food, is where most of your vitamin D comes from. So even a healthy, well-balanced diet, that provides all the other vitamins and goodness you need, is unlikely to provide enough vitamin D.' -The Association of UK dieticians.
The following food contain Vitamin D:
- Oily fish such as salmon, sardines, pilchards, trout, herring, kippers and eel contain reasonable amounts of vitamin D.
- Cod liver oil contains a lot of vitamin D.
- Egg yolk, read meat, offal and milk contain small amounts of vitamin D.
- Margarine, some breakfast cereals, infant formula milk and some yoghurts have added vitamin D.
In the summertime we all tend to spend more time outdoors but the skin often and ever so rightly, is covered by clothing or sunscreen which prevents the development of vitamin D in the skin. Vitamin D also degrades in our body as quickly as it generates which is another reason to supplement your diet with Vitamin D. But having said that, it's widely regarded that little sunshine is healthy for your skin but you do not have to sunbathe to make vitamin D! In the UK the ultraviolet light from the sun is only strong enough to make vitamin D on exposed skin (on the hands, face and arms or legs) during April to September.
However strong sun also burns skin and damages the structure of skin cells so it's essential to balance sun safety and soaking up sun-rays. - Cover up and protect your skin with sunscreen! Find out more about sun safety on the NHS Choices website.
Most Vitamin D supplements are derived from lanolin but lanolin is the grease produced by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals like sheep. This is obviously not good news for vegans! However there are other ways of extracting vitamin D such as from lichen and algae which is how our product is made. There's a multi layered process of extracting the cholecalciferol from the algae, purifying and then concentrating it into oil before its processed into tablets. The result is a very small and easy swallow tablet of 25 micrograms of Vitamin D3 1000iu.