There is currently a craze to take vitamin D3 supplements. Are they necessary? Are they even healthy? We managed pretty well for the duration of our evolution before they were invented, so why should we need them now?
A few decades ago, people started being frightened by the ozone layer thinning, making the sun’s rays more potent. There are opinions on both sides and I have little idea which is really true.
But what I do know to be true is that corporations immediately jumped on the band wagon. They intensified the fear and suggested that exposure to the sun was unhealthy unless you were liberally smeared with their product – sunscreen.
This had no scientific foundation. In fact, an independent study done later found that the application of sunscreen INCREASED your chances of getting skin cancer. Which would explain the enormous increase in skin cancer clinics. This is hardly surprising as sunscreens are laced with chemicals that we know little about.
For example, the ingredients of sunscreens include a hormone disrupting chemical, which penetrates the skin. It is also known that the form of vitamin A used in sunscreens, retinol or retinyl palmate, increase the speed of malignant cell development.
Furthermore, most manufacturers of sunscreens tend to overstate the performance of their products. Regulating bodies in each country are either lacking in regulations regarding sunscreens or disregard their dangers due to their system of safety testing.
And, of course, the application of sunscreen inhibits the vitamin D uptake, creating an additional problem. The off-shoot of the sunscreen industry meant there was a massive reduction in the amount of sun exposure people had. This obviously lead to a vitamin D deficiency in large groups of the population.
So another industry was born, that of the making of a supplement. Vitamin D2 is made from irradiating plants and is considered less potent than vitamin D3. The vitamin D3 supplement is made by irradiating animal cholesterol. You might ask, irradiated with what?
The manufacturers of these two products are laughing all the way to the bank.
So what can you do?
Before either of the industries were born, people managed very well by getting adequate sun exposure during the summer months. Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that is stored in the body. If you have enough exposure during the summer months, it will last you all winter. It is not required on a daily basis.
If you are fair skinned and burn easily, then you need to gradually increase your daily exposure (on bare skin) to your optimum daily dose, in the summer. If you live in a hot country, then it may be a good idea to avoid the midday sun, if you can.
Natural sunscreens comes from eating dark red and dark green fruit and vegies. Tomatoes, spinach, kale, raspberries, strawberries, algae are all healthy foods on many other levels than simply protecting your skin. These foods equip your body with the ability to stop absorbing the sun’s rays when you have had enough.
An hour or so a day is considered plenty of time to expose your skin to the sun, to get your required vitamin D. However, this will depend on the colour of your skin (darker skins need more), how much skin is exposed, the season, your location in the world and the time of day.
I think that a walk or two a day, or time spent gardening, will have the triple benefit of getting you out into nature, ensuring you get some gentle exercise as well as ensuring you get you daily sun exposure.
The vitamin D3 supplement is not a vitamin. It is a synthetic drug made by the pharmaceutical industries. You can OD on it and this can cause serious problems. The best way to get this essential vitamin is to ensure you get daily exposure (on bare skin) during the summer months.
A tan IS healthy. We instinctively know this as a tanned skin tends to glow and exudes health.
