Vitamin D and Plant-Based Diets 

Our August monthly catch up with Fuchsia Goldsmith, RD was all about vitamin D and plant-based diets!

The key points were:

☀️ Vitamin D is also known as the sunshine vitamin. You can get all that you need from sunlight. 

☀️ Don’t believe the hype, while many inflammatory conditions (think heart disease, cancer, depression, immune disorders) have been associated with low vitamin D levels, supplements have not been demonstrated to be beneficial in preventing or improving these conditions. 

☀️ The VITAL study (published last week), which looked at data from >25,000 people found no associations between taking vitamin D supplements and improved health, even in people with levels <20ng/mL (which is typically considered severely deficient). 

☀️ There is no evidence that taking vitamin D supplements will stop you from getting covid or soften your symptoms. 

☀️ There’s little regulation on dietary supplements, and people profit from selling more supplements! 

☀️ Aim for 8 mins of sunshine in Summer and 40 mins in Winter each day to hit your vitamin D requirements. 

☀️ Vitamin D supplements may be needed for those with several risk factors for deficiency.

If you have other questions that we didn’t have time to cover this time, then just get in touch 🙂