Vitamin D has an essential role for health.
Indeed, it helps maintain bone strength and cardiovascular health, and prevents certain autoimmune diseases.
Being deficient in vitamin D can lead to a great loss of energy, nervousness, migraines and even depression.
Over 80% of French people are deficient in this vitamin despite its importance.
We will therefore see in this article how to overcome these possible deficiencies.
The sun
It is mainly exposure to the sun that allows the body to synthesize vitamin D. Therefore, it is important to regularly expose yourself to the sun in order to enjoy its benefits. But be careful, this is not about going out for hours without any protection. First of all, during hot weather, it is important to protect your face and head with sun protection as well as a hat or cap. The parts of the body that must be exposed are the forearms, because they are the least fragile but allow to benefit from what the solar rays provide for health. Be careful, if you put sunscreen on the forearms, the sun’s rays will therefore be blocked and the synthesis of vitamin D will not take place. A minimum exposure of 15 minutes is recommended.
The concern with the sun is that it is not present all year round, and the weak rays that sometimes reach us from autumn until spring are not strong enough to allow the synthesis of vitamin D. For this reason we will have to help us with food.
Food
The foods richest in vitamin D are fatty fish such as sardines, salmon, anchovies and mackerel. Preferably organic eggs also contain a significant amount. There are also milks fortified with vitamin D, which can be of interest. But as I have already explained in this article, it is best not to consume large amounts of milk.
The effects of vitamin D are enhanced by taking vitamin K, which is found in abundance in green leafy vegetables. It is very important to consume these vegetables in order to benefit from the vitamin D + vitamin K synergy.
Supplementation
During winter periods, it is very common, despite an appropriate diet, to have vitamin D deficiency. Supplementation is essential if you want to maintain optimal health!
As we have seen, it can be interesting to combine vitamin D and vitamin K.
Vegans will necessarily have to go through supplementation since vitamin D is hardly present in plant foods. There are vitamin D food supplements of plant origin (lichen).
If you want to supplement yourself, it is important to choose vitamin D in its D3 form and not D2, because the latter is not important for the body, and could even have a harmful effect on absorption of vitamin D3.
