How important is Vitamin D?

The Human Body manufactures Vitamin D itself and to do so needs exposure to sunlight, the right foods and supplements where necessary.

Lack of sunshine or using strong SPF in skincare therefore inhibits the amount of sunshine the body absorbs in order to produce Vitamin D. So we need to rely on food within our diet to make up the deficit. Those foods are oily fish, healthy cereals, cheese, milk and butter, amongst others.

Long known to be essential as an adjunct to calcium for strong bones and teeth, recent research suggests vitamin D is essential for healthy muscles and the immune system, and that it can help prevent allergies and juvenile diabetes.

Meanwhile, receptors in your brain need D to keep hunger and cravings in check, as well as to pump up levels of the mood-elevating chemical serotonin. Vitamin D even optimises your body’s ability to absorb other important weight-loss nutrients, especially calcium. When your body lacks calcium, it can experience up to a fivefold increase in the fatty acid synthase, an enzyme that converts calories into fat. In a 2009 study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, obese women who were put on a 15-week diet and took 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day lost six times more weight than women who followed the diet alone. The end result: By fueling your body with the D-rich nutrients it needs to get out of a fat-storage state and into a fat-burning one, you could potentially speed weight loss by up to 70 percent.

In conclusion Vitamin D is essential for many functions in the body and with the lack of sunshine in particular parts of the world, then what we eat is even more important as our source of essential nutrients.

Today is #FF….make it Fish Friday!