You probably know that vitamin D is responsible for proper bone formation and that its deficiency leads to the appearance of rickets in children. But do you know that in adults low vitamin D symptoms include brittle bones that fracture easily, a condition known as osteoporosis, most notorious in older women?

Functions of Vitamin D
The major functions of vitamin D are: it acts together with parathyroid and calcitonin hormones to stimulate absorption of calcium and phosphorous in the small intestines. Vitamin D also works with calcium and phosphorous in the formation of bone tissue in a process known as bone mineralization.

Recent studies point to other uses of vitamin D in the human body. It helps strengthen the immune system, prevent and fight osteoporosis, breast and prostrate cancers, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and some autoimmune conditions including asthma.

Prohormone Vitamin
Scientists say that vitamin D is not an actual vitamin but a kind of hormone. Of course this should not necessarily concern us. What should is that we need to get sufficient quantities of the vitamin to keep our bones well maintained through out life. So, even knowing that this vitamin is a kind of hormone or prohormone, we will stick to calling it a vitamin in our discussion.

The body has capacity to produce vitamin D by the action of the sun’s ultra violet rays on the human skin. But various reasons lead to insufficiency which can lead to the appearance of vitamin D deficiency symptoms. This is more likely to happen for those of us who live in places where sunshine is inadequate, but our lifestyles are also likely to deny us enough soaking in of sunshine. This is the reason why we must seek to consume adequate vitamin portions from dietary sources.
Adequate Intake of Vitamin D

A daily intake of 200 international units or 5micrograms is considered adequate for adults up to 50 years. Infants and young children need about double this intake. The same applies to adults above 50, whose skin, liver and kidney abilities to synthesize the vitamin are reduced. Without intervention, these two groups are liable to sufferer from vitamin D deficiency symptoms. The practice should be to get sufficient dietary or supplementary vitamin D and also find time to soak in some sunshine whenever possible to ensure good health today and later in life.

Vitamin D Food Sources

Yeast and fish liver oil are the richest natural sources of the vitamin. Fish meat, mushrooms and eggs also provide substantial quantities of vitamin D as is evident from the following list.
Food Item Quantity Vitamin D Quantity
Herring, pickled 3ounces 4.82mg
Sardine , Canned in oil 3ounces 1.93mg
Mushrooms, shiitake dried 3.6g 1.49mg
Mushrooms, fresh 70g 1.33mg
Shrimp Fresh 3 ounces 1.08mg
Caviar 3ounces 0.93mg
Herring, kippered 3ounces 0.85mg
Cod, canned 3ounces 0.6mg
Milk, whole or nonfat, fortified 1cup (240g) 2.50mcg
Evaporated milk, fortified ½ cup (126g) 2.5mcg
Egg 50g 0.68mcg

Vitamin D Foods and relative vitamin D quantities

Owing to the limited range of vitamin D foods, the American and other governments in the world require that various foods be fortified with vitamin D. Milk as in our list above is required to be fortified with 10micrograms per liter. It is important therefore to take an interest and check the vitamin content of the packed food items that you buy.

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