Vitamin D ensures strong bones and influences muscle strength. It is important for the metabolism and to stay mobile at any age. When it comes to supply, the body’s own formation in the foreground and thus the recommendation to go through Exposure to sunlight make the skin produce vitamin D. How long you have to expose yourself to the sun depends on several factors: the time of year (longer in winter than in summer), the time (shortest at noon) and the skin type (light types take less time than dark ones).
As Rule of thumb applies: expose face, hands and parts of arms and legs to the sun for 10 to 25 minutes daily. A sufficient supply of vitamin D is possible if you spend a lot of time outdoors with some areas of uncovered skin.
Food as a vitamin D supplier
Often, however, the sunlight is not enough, especially in the winter months. If the body’s own production of vitamin D fails to occur, so does that German Nutrition Society, Vitamin D intake of 20 micrograms per day is necessary to achieve the desired concentration of 50 nanomoles per liter of blood.
However, nutrition can only contribute a relatively small proportion here. Some foods provide vitamin D, but most only in small amounts: for example high-fat fish (Herring 26 µg / 100 g and salmon 16 µg / 100 g), egg yolk (6 ug / 100 g), mushrooms (3.1 ug / 100 g), Gouda (1.3 µg / 100 g) or Butter (1.2 µg / 100 g). With an average of 2–4 µg per day, food only makes a negligible contribution to the vitamin D supply.
Unwanted side effects
People who have not been able to build up storage in bones, muscles and liver over the summer, are barely or not at all or only with covered body parts outdoors or have dark skin color need in our latitudes Vitamin D preparationsaccording to the current recommendation.
However, the tolerable total daily intake of 100 µg vitamin D for adults and children from 11 years and 50 µg for children up to 10 years must be taken into account. These daily amounts refer to the intake through preparations and foods. If the daily intake is regularly higher, undesirable side effects such as kidney stones or kidney calcifications can occur. However, overdosing is not possible if the skin is exposed to excessive sunlight.
–
