Vitamin D deficiency is quite common among deficiencies. Vitamin D is fat-soluble, which means your body needs fat to absorb it and store it. In order to get sufficient amount of Vitamin D, you need to get some sun exposure – the pre-vitamin D reacts to sunlight and form a Vitamin D. It is very difficult to get enough of it only with nutrition or only with sunlight – you need both. Around 20-30 mins 3 times a week is enough (wearing a t-shirt & shorts) if you have fair skin, if your skin is darker you’ll need more exposure.
Deficiency in Vitamin D can be shown as dental issues, the risk of osteoporosis and long term deficiency can cause immune, digestive and brain disorders.
How Much of Vitamin D do you Need per Day?
| Age | Recommended intake (RDI) | Adults | 400–800 IU (10–20 µg) |
|---|---|
| Safe to consume | 1,000–4,000 IU (25–100 µg) |
They are two forms of Vitamin D – Vitamin D2 (plant based – mushrooms) and D3 (fish, liver, salmon, egg yolks, butter). D3 is twice more reactive as D2; but in fortified foods D2 is more common as it is cheaper to produce.
Values calculated per 800 IU.
| Food | Vitamin D per 100 g / 3.5 oz | Per serving | How much to consume 100% for RDI | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IU | % of RDI | Serving Size | IU | % of RDI | in grams | in ounces | in serving | |
| Fish oil | 10001 | 1250% | 1 tbsp | 450 | 56% | 8 | 0.3 | 2 tbsp |
| Salmon | 760 | 95% | Fillet (143 g) | 1086 | 136% | 105 | 3.7 | 3/4 fillet |
| Oatmeal cereals (fortified) | 342 | 43% | portion (45 g) | 154 | 19% | 234 | 8.3 | 5 portions |
| Sardine (canned in oil) | 272 | 34% | 2 pcs | 65 | 8.1% | 294 | 10.4 | 24 pcs |
| Tuna (canned in oil) | 263 | 33% | 1 can (170 g) | 404 | 50% | 304 | 10.7 | 2 cans |
| Caviar | 232 | 29% | 1 tbsp | 37 | 4.6% | 345 | 12.2 | 22 tbsp |
| Breakfast cereals | 130 | 16% | portion (45 g) | 52 | 6.5% | 615 | 21.7 | 15 portions |
| Butter | 56 | 7% | 1 pat (4 g) | 2.8 | 0.35% | 1429 | 50.4 | 1.4 kg |
| Soy Yoghurt (fortified) | 53 | 7% | glass | 207 | 26% | 1509 | 53.2 | 1.4 L |
| Soy milk (fortified) | 46 | 6% | glass | 119 | 15% | 1739 | 61.3 | 1.5 L |
| Swiss cheese | 42 | 5% | 1 cup diced | 58 | 7.3% | 1905 | 67.2 | 2 kg |
| Milk | 42 | 5% | glass | 105 | 13.13% | 1905 | 67.2 | 2 L |
| Egg | 36 | 5% | 1 egg | 15.4 | 1.9% | 2222 | 78.4 | 53 eggs |
| Beer Salami | 36 | 5% | slice (23 g) | 8.3 | 1.04% | 2222 | 78.4 | 2 kg |
| Edam cheese | 36 | 5% | portion (28 g) | 10.1 | 1.26% | 2222 | 78.4 | 2 kg |
| Mushroom | 27 | 3% | portion (100 g) | 27 | 3.4% | 2963 | 104.5 | 3.3 kg |
| Liver (beef) | 16 | 2% | portion (100 g) | 16 | 2% | 5000 | 176.4 | too much |
| Tofu | 0 | 0% | – | – | 0% | – | – | |
| Toempeh | 0 | 0% | – | – | 0% | – | – | |
| Nuritional yeast | 0 | 0% | – | – | 0% | – | – | |
| Chia seeds | 0 | 0% | – | – | 0% | – | – | |