Vitamin D Foods and the Health Benefits of Vitamin D

October 13, 2009

Diet Foods, Diets & Nutrition

Vitamin D helps you maintain your joints and bones healthy because it helps your body absorb more calcium. If your body lacks vitamin D you are just one step away from having some serious bone problems like osteoporosis. This is the main health benefit of vitamin D.

Recent studies have proven that a vitamin d deficiency can lead to an increased risk of type 1 diabetes, muscle and joint pains and in severe cases breast, colon, prostate and other types of cancer. So make sure you get enough vitamin d by eating lots of vitamin d foods.

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If you want to lower your blood pressure you would better eat vitamin D foods. By getting enough vitamin D in your system you also avoid your chances of ever suffering from diabetes, having a heart attack, getting arthritis or sclerosis.

What I find fascinating about vitamin D is the fact that it is presumed that it can slow down and even hinder the development of cancerous cells. If you had cases of cancer in your family you should increase your consumption of vitamin d foods just to be on the safe side. Vitamin D also helps your pancreas produce more insulin which in turn will strengthen your immune system and keep diabetes away from you. As you can see the health benefits of vitamin D are many.

Recent studies tell us that the recommended daily intake of vitamin D is of 1000 UI. That way you will be able to keep many chronic diseases at bay. Milk is a fabulous vitamin D food. That is why you should drink some milk each day.

You should know that not all foods contain vitamin D. Most foods contain just small quantities of vitamin D. For example, an egg yolk contains only 25 UI of vitamin D and 100 grams of cheese contains just 9 UI of vitamin D. Some fabulous vitamin D foods are salmon and sardines. From 100 grams of salmon you can get 425 UI of vitamin D and form 100 grams of sardines you can get about 260 UI of vitamin D.

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To benefit from all the health benefits of vitamin D you should drink milk daily. By drinking two glasses of normal milk you will get about 200 UI of vitamin D. Unfortunately as we age our body needs more and more vitamin D and we find it harder and harder to supply it. That is why most food manufacturers add vitamin D to most of their food products. Nowadays you can buy vitamin D enriched yogurt, margarine, cereals, orange juice and many more vitamin d foods can be found on the shelves of the supermarket. My recommendation is if you can choose between two similar foods choose the one containing vitamin D.

Eating lots of vitamin D foods is a great way to get all the vitamin D that your body needs. But did you know that you can also get vitamin D by getting a good tan. When you expose your skin to sunlight it produces significant quantities of vitamin D. By bathing in the sun it is actually possible to produce more vitamin D than your body needs. Pretty cool if you ask me.

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