Indoors Living And Vitamin D
We have been spending a lot of time indoors. In Australia, it has been going for months.
First, we had to plan and protect ourselves from a furious and long bushfire season which forced many of us to stay indoors for many days to escape the smoke. Then, we had torrential rainfall for weeks, then, this virus pandemic broke and forced us back into our houses again. And it looks like it will go for months. In addition to self-isolation, we are heading towards colder and colder days as winter approaches which again will encourage us to spend more time inside…
“In Australia, our best source of vitamin D is the skin exposure to sunlight.”
In Australia, our best source of vitamin D is the skin exposure to sunlight. So, I think you know where I’m coming from when I say some of us may fall into vitamin D deficiency if we neglect a few things…
First of all, we should all make additional effort and spend more time outside – our backyard or balcony are safe and perfectly fine for this. During winter, exposing face, neck and arms to sunlight for 16 minutes in the middle of the day is the recommendation to keep healthy levels of vitamin D(1).
The second best source of vitamin D is food. And the food that is richest in vitamin D is mushrooms. Check this post on Eat Play Learn Nutrition Facebook page published a couple of weeks ago to see that you can even amplify the vitamin D availability in your mushrooms by exposing them too to the sunlight.
There are also other foods that are good source of vitamin D. Foods like oily fish (mackerel, salmon), egg yolks, dairy, fortified margarine, chicken skin and chocolate are also good sources of the vitamin.
One last source of vitamin D is supplements which are very important in specific cases of osteoporosis, and effective and safe under recommendation and monitoring of a qualified health provider. But, the absorption of vitamin D from supplements is not as good as from mushrooms(1), so, it is important to only rely on supplements under medical guidance.
What vitamin D deficiency causes?
Vitamin D is essential for the body to retain calcium for teeth and bone health. So, vitamin D deficiency may mean calcium deficiency as well which then, leads to osteoporosis in adults – soft, flexible, brittle and deformed bones – and, in children, it may result in rickets which is inadequate calcification of the bones causing all sorts of deformities, including a delayed fusion of the skull bones and arched legs (bow-legs)(2).
“When it comes to vitamin D, two sources are best.”
- Dr. Flavia Fayet-Moore and Dr. Jill Gamberg (UNSW)
In my side job as a childcare cook, I’ve observed that young children usually accept mushrooms in their food quite well. I see an opportunity here to boost their intake of vitamin D paired with sunlight exposure. When it comes to vitamin D, two sources are best, according to nutrition research(1).
Tomato sauce with mushrooms on cooked pearl barley, photo by Fern Rodrigues.
My culinary suggestion is a very simple tomato sauce, Bolognese like, using mushrooms. It can be made vegetarian, with just mushrooms as its “meaty” ingredient, or a combination of mushrooms and any other meat you fancy. The sauce goes well with any kind of pasta or even with rice, polenta and couscous. Or on pearl barley, like my dinner last night!
References
Vitamin D: Two sources are best (2019). Dr. Fayet-Moore and Dr. Gamberg (UNSW)
Understanding Nutrition (2011). Whitney E., Rolfes S. R., Dr. Crowe T., Cameron-Smith D., Walsh A.
