How to Get Enough Vitamin D in Northern Climates

Vitamin D is vital to your health. Be sure and get enough of this valuable nutrient every day. It could save your life. Here are three ways I recommend you get your full share of Vitamin D:

1. Get some sun. The easiest, most reliable way to get it is simply by getting out in the sun for 10 to 15 minutes a couple days a week. It’s free, and will make you feel great. Depending upon where you live, this might not be possible. And simply taking a multivitamin won’t give you enough Vitamin D, either. So I recommend taking a Vitamin D supplement every day.

2. Eat foods with high Vitamin D. Best sources are small fish like herring, sardines, and anchovies. Stay away from the larger fish that are higher up on the food chain, as the mercury content may be too high to safely eat.

3. Take some cod liver oil. Besides sunlight, the best natural source of Vitamin D is cod liver oil. Just a single teaspoon contains 1,360 IU of Vitamin D. Check out just how powerful cod liver oil is compared to some other pretty good sources of Vitamin D:

Food Sources of Vitamin D

Food

Serving

Vitamin D IU’s

Cod Liver Oil

1 Tablespoon

1,360

Salmon, cooked

3-1/2 ounces

360

Mackerel, cooked

3-1/2 ounces

345

Tuna fish, canned in oil

3 ounces

200

Sardines, canned in oil

1-3/4 ounces

250

Orange juice, fortified

8 ounces

100

Milk, organic, from grass-fed cows and fortified

1 cup

98

Cereal, fortified

¾ to 1 cup

40

Egg (vitamin D is found in egg yolks)

1 egg

20

Liver, beef, cooked

3-1/2 ounces

15

Cheese, Swiss

1 ounce

12

4. Take 5,000 IU of a good form of Vitamin D. What makes a good form of Vitamin D? Vitamin D3. Our bodies may be conditioned to produce less Vitamin D during the winter months, when sunlight is less readily available for many. However, that’s when other seasonal stresses come into play.

Don’t rely on your multivitamin to give you enough Vitamin D3. It only has 200 to 400 IU. There is a movement to increase the RDA, but it hasn’t been approved yet. A Vitamin D3 supplement will help keep your body strong all year long.