Raw foodie vs. Supplements: Round Two – Vitamin D

A lot of raw foodies are completely aware of the importance of the sunshine vitamin, most of them make a conscious effort to get outside and enjoy the sun for a few minutes each day. Whether you can get the recommended 15 minutes or not, just getting a little bit of sun when it’s at it’s highest can be very beneficial! I have recently begun going out around lunch time and sitting on the hood of my car to enjoy a little bit to eat and then kick back and enjoy the sun! It feels so good, the fact that I am knowing I am doing something good for myself makes it feel all that much better! If you are fair skinned like me it really doesn’t require much time at all for your skin to make more vitamin D that you will ever be able to get through a supplement.

If my memory serves (I believe I read this somewhere a while back) Vitamin D stores in your liver for 6 months. For people with darker skin or who are in Northern climates it may be important to supplement, especially if you can’t get enough sun during the summer months (and in some Northern climates the sun never actually gets high enough in the sky for this to be helpful). For example, I grew up in Vermont. My sister had darker skin then I do and would experience bouts of depression come February. In Vermont you get your sun in the end of June, July and the beginning of August. I would be willing to guess that my sisters reserves had run out come February and that is why she had the experiences she did. Now she lives in a much warmer, sunnier climate and her health through the winter has greatly improved! Knowing what I know now, I am pretty sure she would have benefited from supplementing during the winter months!

This is only one example that I experienced personally. I had my own issues with depression that seemed to magically go away once I moved South of the Mason Dixon line. It took a couple years for my depression cycle to completely go away, but it did!

Sun block is another Vitamin D enemy! The use of sunblock means that they chemical reaction that takes place under you top layers of skin, when skin meets sun, can’t take place. Yes, if you wear sunblock, you don’t sunburn. That is well known. But you are also putting a layer of chemicals on your skin (in most cases) which has it’s own laundry list of side effects. If you aren’t raw, then you would be better off covering up after getting your needed exposure based on your skin tones (if you are concerned about cancer). If you are raw, your skin is much more adept at protecting itself. I rarely burn anymore. If I don’t take care to cover up after about an hour in mid day sun then yes, I will burn, but an hour is much more then I ever used to be able to endure previous to being raw!

So lets get to the questions that is on everyone’s minds!

Should you supplement Vitamin D?

There are many levels to this question. I am going to say that Yes, I believe you should supplement IF the following conditions apply to you:

1. You live far enough North that you have more cold weather then you do warm (This would include all of New England, Canada, Alaska and most of the other Northern states – I guess the same rule would apply if you were far enough South)
2. You wear sunblock religiously (you use skin care with sunblock already in it)
3. You experience seasonal depression (at this point, what’s it going to hurt! Try it! See if it helps! And talk to your Natural Health practitioner – the RDA may not be enough for you, I find that it isn’t for me)
4. You have darker skin and don’t feel that you are able to get enough sun between work and life!
5. You are a recluse! (I just had to cover my bases – and if you don’t go outside, no matter where you live you should consider supplementing!)

I am in no way an authority on this! I am just giving you my opinion. If you want to take a higher dose then the bottle says or feel that you might be Vitamin D deficient find a local Natural Health practitioner and work with them! If you are comfortable experimenting on yourself, do your research! Get on Natural News, read any book you can get your hands on, check out Mercola.com. Educate yourself!

Remember also, Vitamin D is important for bone health! It’s something you want to make sure you aren’t deficient in!

What’s the best type of Vitamin D to supplement?

Based on the research I have done the best supplement choice for D is D3. MegaFoods makes the supplement that I take during the winter months! There are other companies, I just choose to take MegaFoods supplement. It works for me. There are some very good sub lingual dissolving tablets, I just choose not to take them because of the artificial sweetener in them to make them taste good.

If you are taking a supplement because it tastes good and it’s not a whole food, you should really look at the ingredients. Even reputable companies sneak in “natural flavoring” here and there. If you don’t know what it is and want to continue taking the supplement you might want to call them and find out what they are using to sweeten that little tablet you put in your mouth every day!

Well I think that about covers my Vitamin D talk! I live in Maryland and still supplement during the winter. And I use more then the RDA. That’s what I am comfortable with and what I feel works best for me. As I mentioned in the previous article, I use Applied Kinesology and it works well for me! Do what works best for you! Educate yourself, get a Natural Health practitioner on your side and optimize your health!

Until Next time! Love and take care of yourself the best you can! You are the only person that is going to make you number 1!

xo

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Vitamin D Lowers Diabetes Risk
• Sunlight and supplements for vegan diet
• Study: Vitamin D Leads to Longer Life