Sunny D, the mysterious vitamin - NYU Washington Square News

[Charlie]

Sunny D, the mysterious vitamin
NYU Washington Square News, NY - 1 hour ago
Why is vitamin D so much more special than any other, you ask? It isn't, really. All vitamins do different, unique things for your body. ...



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[Neon Beach]

We live in an era of Vitamin Water and Diet Coke Plus, and even though both drinks are sad, liquid substitutes for real food, their relative success on the market shows that people still want to get their vitamins and minerals.

But it can be difficult to distinguish between all those pesky vitamins you need. They appear in small print on sides of cereal boxes, milk cartons and energy bars. On some products, the vitamin list reads like a statistician's spreadsheet, with so many nutrients and numbers that it's a wonder anyone can understand their benefits. It's easy to give them a cursory glance and forget about them, since they might all seem the same.

There's one particular vitamin, though, that has begun to make waves in the nutrition community in the past five years. Recently, studies have shown that it may reduce the risk of cancer. But, we'll get to that in a second.

Why is vitamin D so much more special than any other, you ask? It isn't, really. All vitamins do different, unique things for your body. But I find it to be the most interesting and quirky of all the vitamins you might find listed on the side of your Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

For starters, you might think that your body can only absorb vitamins from food. That's not the case.

Vitamin D is actually activated in the body by the ultraviolet rays of sunlight that grace our skin every day. If you get enough sunlight, you'll help build it up in your system. This vitamin helps promote calcium absorption in the body and by extension helps build strong bones. That's the classic, most well-known benefit nutritionists have known about for years. You can produce the vitamin you need simply by walking around outdoors and living your life. That's ten times more fun than getting it in a supplement.

In fact, vitamin D isn't found in that many foods. All milk in the U.S. is fortified with it, thanks to an epidemic of rickets, a bone-weakening disease often caused by vitamin D deficiency, in the 1930s, but it mostly naturally occurs in oily fish products, like salmon or cod liver oil (had any of that lately?). It can also be found in fortified dairy products, but it's certainly not naturally present in as many foods as vitamin C or calcium is. As a population, we're not horribly lacking in vitamin D, but we don't usually get it from food.

However, and this is really why you should sit up and pay attention to this vitamin, recent studies have shown that there might be more to vitamin D than some had previously thought.

It may reduce cancer risk, especially for colon, breast and prostate cancers. It could reduce your risk for Type 2 diabetes and could also potentially help build a healthy immune system. These findings have come out in recent studies, which is one reason why vitamin D is such a hot topic in the nutrition world right now. But don't get too excited; often, preliminary studies such as these don't pan out in future research.

Very high levels of vitamin D are common among people who live in the tropics - not as much among New Yorkers, so don't spend too much time inside - get some sun while you still can, but remember your sunscreen.

... Huh?

[Bill]

Did you look at the replies?

[Neon Beach]

Yes I did.