Vitamin D Newsletter
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Frequently Asked Questions
Welcome to the Frequently Asked Questions page. Please review the information below and if your question is still unanswered, Ask Dr. Dowd.
- If I need to take more vitamin D and eat "better" then my kids and other family members do as well, right?
- What am I suppose to eat for breakfast?
- Don’t we need the calcium from dairy?
- Where am I supposed to get fiber from?
- All the information out there says that whole grain is good for us; why do you say it isn’t?
- Why is vitamin D important?
- Won’t I get skin cancer?
- Why do the dermatologists tell us to stay out of the sun if we need more to make vitamin D?
- What foods should I eat to get more vitamin D?
- Why is my vitamin D level so low?
Yes. Studies looking at vitamin D deficiency in children show that their mothers are deficient as well. Studies looking at vitamin D deficiency in adults show that their young children are deficient as well. Families tend to share the same life style; in essence you inherit your lifestyle from those who raised you.
Our choices for breakfast have been engrained into us. Breakfast to most Americans is cereal, toast, bagels, waffles, pancakes, fruit and juice. We have been told to stop eating eggs, bacon and sausage. So, breakfast is a carbohydrate/sugar feast. You are feeding yourself all this sugar when your Cortisol levels are the highest for the day. Bad timing!
Dairy like grain is inexpensive and convenient food. But, like grain it is not as healthy as lean meat and fresh vegetables. Three quarters of the world’s population is lactose intolerant. NHANES III tells us that 60 percent of European Americans and 90 percent of African Americans are vitamin D deficient. In addition, the darker your skin tone the more likely you will be lactose intolerant. So it does not make any logical sense that three servings of dairy should be required on the food pyramid.
There is about 3 grams of fiber in a bowl of plain oatmeal with skim milk. There is about 1 gram of fiber in a cup of spinach. There is about 1.5 grams of fiber in one medium sized tomato. There are 4 grams of fiber in a serving of green beans. One medium red skinned potato has 3 grams of fiber. So a meal with a 3 ounce serving of lean meat, salad, potatoes and green beans has almost 10 grams of fiber or the equivalent of 3-4 bowls of cereal and no more calories than the bowl of cereal.
Historically grain has allowed humans to evolve from small bands of hunter-gatherers to large complex specialized societies. As we have industrialized our food production we have increased the processing of grain stripping away what few nutrients it has. Today grain provides calories to keep us alive but does not promote health.
For starters, vitamin D is not a vitamin; it is a hormone from the same family of steroid hormones as estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and cortisol. This means that, like these other hormones, vitamin D regulates gene expression in the nucleus of a cell. It doesn’t just have a seat on the front row in regulating our biochemistry, it is conducting the orchestra!
More recent data suggests that too much ultraviolet light in the A spectrum (UVA) relative to the B spectrum (UVB) places us at greater risk for skin cancer. This makes sense because UVB is available at midday and UVA throughout the day.
Public health messages are usually over simplified at first in an effort to gain acceptance. Remember when all fat was bad for you or when all carbohydrates were bad for you. Now we know that there are good fats and bad fats, good carbs and bad carbs. We also know there is healthy sun exposure and unhealthy sun exposure.
Ninety percent of our vitamin D comes from sun exposure. In some cultures they do get closer to half their vitamin D from food. These cultures consume large amounts of fish, particularly Salmon, Tuna, Mackerel, Sardines, seal and seal blubber and Herring. Examples of these people are Icelanders, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegians, Japanese, Okinawans, and Inuit Indians (Eskimos).
Your vitamin D level is low primarily due to a lack of sun exposure in the middle of the day. Inadequate intake of green leafy vegetables and cold water fish (salmon, tuna, sardines) also contribute to lower vitamin D levels. As little as 200 years ago our sun exposure was much greater than today. Americans and Europeans were mostly farmers and worked out of doors all day. The industrial revolution around the Civil War and into the 20th century brought us all indoors for work. This transformation accelerated after World War II and the digital revolution of the nineties.