How to Avoid Vitamin D Deficiency

You probably already feel familiar with the word “Vitamins.” Vitamins are organic substances that human needs in small quantities to maintain or to improve their physical health. Making sure that our body does not lack vitamin d is crucial because vitamin d is essential for the body’s well-being. Vitamin d plays the role of maintaining healthy bones and teeth. Besides that, this vitamin also delivers a handful of benefits. There are also various sources of vitamin d. However, do you know that the human body can produce vitamin d? Then, why do cases of vitamin d deficiency exist?

About Vitamin D Deficiency and What Could Be the Cause?

There are various causes of vitamin d deficiency. One’s lifestyle could also be a reason. Direct sunlight is the main source of vitamin d for the human body because it contains ultraviolet radiation B (UVB). Most people would spend their daytime working. If you’re working indoors, you probably don’t get sunlight as much as someone who works outdoor. And for someone who works nightshifts, they probably would spend their daytime resting. Therefore, even if it is easy to access sunlight, few reasons could decrease exposure to sunlight.

Skin type also could affect the UVB absorption level. People with darker skin need three times the amount of exposure to sunlight people with fair skin needs. So, it’s a disadvantage to people with darker skin because their skin has stronger resistance to sunlight compared to people with fair skin. Also, spending a long time under sunlight would cause skin aging and may trigger skin cancer because, besides UVB, it also contains UVA.

People also put on sunscreen to prevent skin problems caused by UVA because sunscreen contains sun-protecting factors (SPF). Sunscreen exists in various levels of sun-blocking efficiency, it ranges from SPF 15 to SPF 50. The most common, the SPF 30 sunscreen blocks up to 97% UV rays. Therefore, using sunscreen could lessen the body’s ability to synthesize vitamin d.

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There are few symptoms of vitamin d deficiency, such as:

• fatigue
• bone and back pain
• muscle pain
• hair loss

Meanwhile, severe vitamin d deficiency could lead to various health issues. Such as neurological diseases, rickets, autoimmune problems, pregnancy complications, osteomalacia, and certain cancers. 

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About Sources of Vitamin D and How Much Vitamin D We Need Daily?

Direct sunlight is the prime source because the UVB turned to vitamin d after interacting with the type of cholesterol in human skin. But due to various reasons previously mentioned, people might find depending on direct sunlight to fulfill their need for Vitamin D is unlikely. Even though being the prime source, direct sunlight is not the only source. 

 

Just look at your daily menu because foods are also the source of vitamins. Numerous foods contain vitamin d, such as:

• Egg yolk (218 IU/100 g)
• Salmon (526 IU/100 g)
• Tuna (82 IU/100 g)
• Beef liver (49 IU/ 100 g)
• Mushrooms (7 IU/ 100 g)
• Fortified milk (1 IU/ 100 g)
• Soy milk (1 IU/ 100 g)
• Pork chops (53 IU/ 100 g)

Some of the foods mentioned on the list are probably something you consume daily. To avoid deficiency, the first thing to do is to learn the exact daily intakes dose for you. In general, people’s daily intake of vitamin d is 600 IU, including pregnant women. Meanwhile, adults above 70 years old probably need more than that to maintain their physical health. It’s recommended for them to consume 800 IU a day. 

Besides foods, another source of vitamin d is supplements. Most of you might be familiar with cod liver oil. Cod liver oil is a supplement with the highest amount of vitamin d, which is 10.000 IU/100 g. However, there are numerous supplements with a variety of dosage levels, it ranges up to 5.000 IU.

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About the Benefits of Vitamin D and Does it Comes with Side Effects?

There are benefits vitamin d supplies to our body, more than just to prevent deficiency. Vitamin d could repair and strengthen your bones and teeth. It could decrease your chance of developing heart diseases and build your immunity and flu resistance. Based on a study, scientists found that people diagnosed with vitamin d show improvement in their symptoms after receiving vitamin d as part of their treatment.

However, please refrain from over-consuming the vitamin. Excessive consumption could lead to serious health issues such as hardening blood vessels, kidneys, lungs. Few symptoms that show the sign of over-consuming vitamin d are headache, a metallic taste, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and dry mouth. Therefore, despite how easy it is to access supplements, don’t ever forget to avoid the risk of excessive vitamin d intake.

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How to Include Vitamin D in Your Diet?

There are ways to increase vitamin d for your body, specifically, a tasty way. Healthy foods are often stereotyped as bland and plain, and that is not valid. It’s not impossible to have tasteful yet healthy food. And here are some suggestions to make your favorite high vitamin d ingredients into appetizing foods.

• Garlic Butter Baked Salmon
  Savory, tender, juicy, and healthy. Those are the best three words to describe this jaw-dropping meal. This meal also demands minimal effort and here are the steps:

• First, if you decided to have side ingredients like potato, it is recommended for you to bake it first, as salmon is baked rather quickly in the oven.
• While waiting for the potato to bake, mince garlic clover.
• Once the potato is done, set it aside and pile on asparagus and salmon.
• Pour all spices you like.
• Rub minced garlic on top of the salmon, pour melted butter, and add lemons’ juice.
• After 8-10 minutes, your garlic butter-baked salmon is ready to enjoy.
• Tuna Salad

This nutritious and delightful menu is famous for its savory and fresh taste. With tuna as the star ingredients and vegetables, here are few steps to create your own tuna salad:

• Add the vegetables first. You can add red bell pepper, red onion, and garlic into a bowl.
• Add tuna into the bowl, followed by cucumber, chickpeas, and black olives.
• You can add lemon zest to add some citrusy to the taste, and then mix it well.
• Personalize your seasoning and garnish, and now your tuna salad is waiting to be consumed.

There are a lot of ways to prevent cases caused by vitamin d deficiency. If natural sunlight is the least possible option for you, you can take substances that suit you and your lifestyle.

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