Of the many, many things that mothers find themselves worrying about (particularly first time mothers), one which I worried about was whether or not my children get all the nutrition they really need. In fact, this concern spreads throughout my entire family, often attested to by how I grill my husband about eating right, because husbands are like that extra child you somehow find yourself with, aren’t they?
So anyway, a new report released by the government has come forth with some brand new insights with regards to the amount of vitamin D that should be consumed daily, which I must admit sort of sent me into a little mini-panic because I mean does this mean we’ve all been doing it wrong, all this time?
Not necessarily it turned out…
The good thing is that our bodies are somehow adapted to finding ways of synthesising the nutrients which we need from whatever form of nutrition it has to work with. So we might have been doing it slightly wrong all this time, albeit on the belief that we are doing it right, but by no means does this spell any form of disaster. Additionally, vitamin D amongst other micronutrients is exactly that, a micro nutrient, which means we only really need it in small doses, although this doesn’t offset the fact that it is still an important micronutrient.
Generally, 10 micrograms of vitamin D should be consumed each day by both adults and children over the age of one. Vitamin D supplement retailer, Pharma Nord, gives some good insight with regards to the importance of vitamin D.
The Importance of Vitamin D
The “tricky” bit about vitamin D in light of what I touched on about our bodies being able to synthesise nutrients from our regular diets is the fact that this is what vitamin D itself does. Vitamin D assists the body in absorbing phosphate and calcium from the food we eat. If your kids (and the husband maybe as well) enjoy playing out in the sun, then you can rest easy because 90% of the vitamin D we need should come from the sunlight. The other 10% then naturally comes from our diet.
There’s still a catch though because the sunlight isn’t always strong enough to contain the required levels of vitamin D, which is why there’s sometimes a need for vitamin D supplements (or multivitamins) like vitamin d3 k2 arises.
Are You Getting Enough?
To be on the safe side it’d naturally be best to supplement yours and your family’s vitamin D intake, in addition to making sure you incorporate this vital micronutrient into your diet. Muscle and bone pains are some symptoms and signs of a vitamin D deficiency, so that’s one way of finding out if you or your family are deficient, otherwise just ensure to promote traditions such as going out in the sun as a natural way to combat vitamin D deficiency.
Infants younger than a year old are at a particularly greater risk of a deficiency in vitamin D, so too people who are always covered up in heavy clothing. Children aged between a year and up to four are also at an increased risk, as well as the elderly.
