If short days and cold nights are keeping you indoors, you may be running low on the sunshine vitamin. Here’s how to boost your levels — plus your mood and overall health.
It’s no good just wrapping up warm at winter because what you put on your body can be just as important as what you put into it.
Most people can make enough vitamin D from sun exposure during the summer, however during the autumn and winter, you need to get vitamin D from your diet because the sun is not strong enough for the body to make vitamin D. Vitamin D is an important vitamin which helps to maintain the balance of phosphate and calcium in the body. Calcium and phosphate are essential for keeping bones, teeth, and muscle tissues healthy and in working order. Vitamin D aids the absorption of calcium from the foods we eat, but vitamin D is only found in a small number of foods making it difficult for your body to maintain adequate vitamin D levels through diet alone.
Individuals especially in the UK are recommended to supplement their Vitamin D levels during the darker months.
If you are frail or housebound and do not get exposure to sunlight often you can be more at risk of vitamin D deficiency. Similarly individuals resident in care homes can be more at risk due to reduced exposure to sunlight.
Those who wear clothes that cover most of the skin when outside are also at risk as well as individuals with darker skin.
A lack of vitamin D can lead to bone deformities such as rickets in children, and bone pain caused by a condition called osteomalacia in adults. People at high risk of not getting enough vitamin D, all children aged 1 to 4, and all babies (unless they’re having more than 500ml of infant formula a day) should take a daily supplement throughout the year.
The NHS advises that everyone (including pregnant and breastfeeding women) should consider taking a daily supplement containing 10 micrograms of vitamin D during the autumn and winter. However, the amount of vitamin D each individual requires can vary depending on diet and genetic factors and higher daily amounts may be recommended by GP’s for those with severe deficiencies.
The Department of Health and Social Care recommends the following:
- Infants & young children – 8.5mcg to 10mcg daily year round if breastfeeding or consuming less than 500ml of infant formula daily (this is fortified with vitamin D
- Children aged 1 to 4 – 10mcg daily year round
- Adults & children over 4 – 10mcg daily between September and March
As Vitamin D is notoriously tough to get during winter it’s also one of the reasons we produced our strawberry The Multivitamin for Vegans which were our first flagship gummies, it was made specifically for the vegan diet, and as with all of our gummies we’ve only use naturally-derived flavours & colours. It’s our flagship strawberry-flavoured multivitamin, and it’s packed with Vitamins B12, B6 & D3 plus Folic Acid, Selenium & Iodine – providing everything you need and nothing you don’t.
Our other raspberry flavour Sugar Free A-Z Multivitamin is an ideal all-round multivitamin for anyone on any diet! This A-Z vitamin gummy has it all… except the sugar which makes it especially popular with parents who are concerned about the dental health of their children too! What are you waiting for? Cut out the hard work of staying on top of your nutrition!