Nutrition: Are you getting 800IU of Vitamin D per day?

“A University Of Toronto Study recently found that people need significantly more vitamin D than has been commonly accepted. The study involved 796 women between the ages of 18 and 35, And showed that the generally recommend amounts of vitamin D. for women are too low to offer any benefit.

Reinhold Vieth and his colleagues found that any amount of daily vitamin D. intake under 800 IU Wasn’t enough to prevent the vitamin D. deficiency . Although numerous other studies and epidemiological trends have been supporting these same findings, The U.S. Food And Nutrition Board for osteoporosis-relatedmatters still recommends only 200 IU per day for women under the age of 50.”

Dr. David Williams. Alternatives. April, 2002, p. 5.

Wintertime vitamin D insufficiency is common in young Canadian women, and their vitamin D intake does not prevent it.

Vieth R, Cole DE, Hawker GA, Trang HM, Rubin LA.

Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada. [email protected]

Eur J Clin Nutr 01:55(12):1091-7

OBJECTIVE: We asked whether women self-reporting the recommended consumption of vitamin D from milk and multivitamins would be less likely to have low wintertime 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels. METHODS: This cross-sectional study enlisted at least 42 young women each month (age 18-35 y, 796 women total) through one year. We measured serum 25(OH)D and administered a lifestyle and diet questionnaire. RESULTS: Over the whole year, prevalence of low 25(OH)D (<40 nmol/l) was higher in non-white, non-black subjects (25.6% of 82 women) than in the white women (14.8% of 702 white women, P<0.05). Of the 435 women tested during the winter half of the year (November-April), prevalence of low 25(OH)D was not affected by vitamin D intake: low 25(OH)D occurred in 21% of the 146 consuming no vitamin D, in 26% of the 140 reporting some vitamin D intake, up to 5 microg/day (median, 2.5 microg/day), and in 20% of the 149 women reporting vitamin D consumption over 5 microg/day (median, 10 microg/day). INTERPRETATION: The self-reported vitamin D intake from milk and/or multivitamins does not relate to prevention of low vitamin D nutritional status of young women in winter. Recommended vitamin D intakes are too small to prevent insufficiency. Vitamin D nutrition can only be assessed by measuring serum 25(OH)D concentration.