January 16, 2024
Vitamin D takes care of all kinds of different things in your body. But does it also combat the winter blues? Iris Groenenberg from the Nutrition Center answers.
Iris Groenenberg is a nutrition and health expert at the Nutrition Center. She explains where you can get vitamin D from (including the sun, but also from food). She also answers the question of whether taking supplements can influence feelings of depression.
What do you need vitamin D for?
Iris Groenenberg: “Your body needs vitamin D for strong bones and teeth. This vitamin ensures that calcium from food is properly absorbed and is stored in bones and teeth. This helps to limit osteoporosis later in life. In addition, the vitamin is necessary for good muscle function and normal functioning of the immune system. Sunlight is the most important source of this vitamin, but if you eat according to the Wheel of Five you can also partly get it from food. It is mainly found in oily fish, to a lesser extent in meat and eggs, and in the Netherlands it is added to low-fat margarine, margarine and baking and frying products.”
Also read: How does vitamin D affect your intestines?
A stash
“There is no scientific evidence that taking vitamin D supplements helps against winter blues. The Health Council has sometimes listed the studies into the effect of vitamin supplements on feelings of depression. This did not specifically concern winter blues, but people with and without depressive symptoms and patients with depression. All these studies yielded no clear results. It is therefore not substantiated that vitamin D would help against winter blues. You don’t need these supplements to get through the winter. In the winter the sun is quite low, so your skin does not produce enough vitamin D, but in the summer most people build up a supply.”
When to take vitamin D?
“Some people benefit from taking vitamin D for their bone health, for example because their skin absorbs it less. They are advised to use a vitamin D supplement all year round. This concerns people with tanned or dark skin and people who cover their skin, for example with a veil. But it also applies to children up to the age of four, pregnant women and women over fifty. The advice for them is: ten micrograms of vitamin D per day. For people over 70, this is twenty micrograms per day, for both men and women. In the elderly, taking vitamin D reduces the risk of bone fractures due to falls.
If you need supplements, you don’t have to go for an expensive brand. A cheap house brand works just as well. Pay attention to the dosage of the supplement. Taking too much vitamin D does not provide any more benefits and can even be harmful in the long term.”
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TEXT MAIKE ABMA
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2024-01-16 15:59:51
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