Today is the winter solstice, the shortest daylight day of the year. Sunshine and warm sunny days will probably seem a long way off right now which is why I thought today was a good day to discuss Vitamin D!
Vitamin D helps to control the amount of calcium and phosphate in our bodies. Both are needed for healthy bones, teeth and muscles.
Vitamin D is found naturally in a small number of foods, including oily fish, red meat, liver and egg yolks. It’s also found in fortified foods like breakfast cereals and fat spreads.
However, it’s difficult for us to get the recommended amount of vitamin D from food alone. Our main source of vitamin D is from the action of sunlight on our skin, which of course is in short supply during Autumn and Winter!
The advice from Public Health England is that adults and children over the age of one should consider taking a daily supplement containing 10mcg of vitamin D, particularly during autumn and winter
A lack of Vitamin D can cause you to become tired, become ill more often with winter coughs and colds and suffer from muscle aches and pains. So unless you are like enough to be able to go and jet off for some winter sun it might be worth thinking about taking a daily Vitamin D supplement, at least until the clocks change back to summer time!
