Vitamin D Deficiency

So i had a few topics on mind to write about this morning, but a headline in the news made my mind up for me... "Millions of U.S. Kids Lacking Vit D"

It's not the title that took me by surprise, I've read many books and articles written by health and nutrition experts that have been saying this for years, it's the poor research and outdated recommendations that the medical community as well as the FDA base their facts on. The recommended daily allowance as set by "medical experts", or 1 IU (international unit), is about 30ng (nano-grams) with toxicity in levels of about 95um (micro grams) or 3800IU and above, but this is based on flawed incorrect poorly gathered data.

Experts will tell you that Vitamin D deficiency is truly one of the main causes of many diseases in this country with an extensive list provided by the Vitamin D Council. Unfortunately a paper written in 1984 by Narang NK about groups of 6 subjects with hypercalcemia that supposedly consumed levels 3800IU of vitamin D per day, which the author concluded was the cause of the patients disorder, has lead to a massive vitamin deficiency . It's this inaccurate research that has laid the ground work by which our medical community still adheres to. Some have gone as far as to say "Narang, et al's, 1984 paper may have done the most damage to the most people of any paper on vitamin D in the world's literature".

About 10 years ago Dr. Reinhold Vieth (a leading vitamin D expert) challenged the medical community to find any evidence that 10,000IU of vitamin D per day was toxic, and was amazed by the lack of evidence supporting the current LOAEL (Lowest Observed adverse effect levels) of vitamin D; in other words no one could prove this false claim.

So why then do we still adhere to it?

It's no wonder that so many Americas (children and adults alike) are deficient in vitamin D. And if this isn't disturbing enough, I find it very unsettling as to how "they" (the experts) recommend we get our fill. As I read the article this morning, the one that fueled this post, I was further disturbed to hear how they recommend we get our daily dose of D, which as the research above shows, as well as the current state of most Americans health, is far too low of a level. They tell us to get more sunlight (but put the fear of god in us... Cover up or you'll get cancer!), and to consume more foods fortified with vitamin D (processed foods such as cereal, cereal bars, orange juice)... are you kidding me?

Maybe if we actually start eating a healthy diet we won't have to worry whether or not our food was fortified with vitamins (all nutrients have been lost during processing), because they will actually still be in the food, where they were to begin with.

Good natural sources of Vitamin D are fish (some species more than others), eggs, cod liver oil, and the sun, but in order to benefit from these foods you need to choose wisely. For instance wild salmon eat algae which is a good source of vit D for the fish, on the other hand farm raised fish fed corn or grains are a poor choice. Eggs are another source, but once again not from hens that live their entire life packed like sardines in building and fed corn and other grains. You should choose free grazed hens that spend their days eating bugs they find on the ground or in manure. And finally the sun...Humans make at least 10,000 units of vitamin D within 30 minutes of full body exposure to the sun. Vitamin D production in the skin occurs within minutes and is already maximized before your skin turns pink, but fear of skin cancer causes most people to do one of two extremes; either keeps them out of the sun completely or they cover themselves with suntan lotion (which contains toxic chemicals) and then proceed to bake in the sun.

Do yourself a favor and do some research on your own, it may just save your life!