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Your multivitamin and your milk ain’t cutting it.
“People have always assumed that if you have a well balanced diet that you’re getting all the nutrients you need, but there’s essentially no vitamin D in your diet.”~Michael Holick, M.D.
This week we were fortunate enough to have Dr. Michael Holick on the air who is considered the world’s leading authority on vitamin D and who came highly recommended to me by Dr. Andrew Weil. That interview was jam-packed with information about the global deficiency and the staggering amount of data linking a lack of vitamin D to our most prominent health issues such as MS, cancer, and diabetes as well how much we should be getting and how to get it.
Here are just a few of the many points that Dr. Holick made during our discussion:
- Although we are huge advocates of getting our nutrients from food, it is virtually impossible to get enough vitamin D from diet alone.
- Responsible sun exposure is the best way for our bodies to generate vitamin D, but unattainable in the winter months for those living north of Atlanta.
- Adults should be getting a minimum of 2,000 to 3,000 IUs/day (the average multivitamin has 400 IUs).
- Children should be getting a minimum of 1,000 IUs/day (lack of vitamin D in youth has lifelong consequences).
Listen to the full discussion with Dr. Holick:
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And although we covered an enormous amount of information in the interview, we barely scratched the surface of the content of Dr. Holick’s book The Vitamin D Solution. The book goes into much greater detail about specific disease states as well as the fascinating topic of mental health disorders like SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and their relationship to light therapy and vitamin D. I highly recommend it.
This entry has been posted as part of Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday.
Related:
Kathleen’s interview with Dr. Andrew Weil: The prescription for a healthy life
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