Canadians need more sunshine

(Jun 20, 2008) Summer is time to throw off the yoke of winter but also get those pale bodies out into the sunshine, without sunscreen. Canadians are already at high risk for being vitamin D deficient because of our feeble sunlight during fall and winter. So, we need more of the sunshine vitamin when we can get it.

Soak up the rays
Vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin because when the ultraviolet rays of the sun hit our skin, a chemical change happens and creates vitamin D. The sun is our single largest source of the vitamin and as we spend less and less time in the sunshine, we become even more depleted.

Overlooked
Vitamin D gets our muscles and nerves to function properly as well as helping the body to absorb calcium. Lack of the vitamin used to be associated with rickets in the young and osteoporosis in the old. But researchers have seen a connection to lack of the sunshine vitamin and other health problems that include many types of cancer, fibromyalgia multiple sclerosis, diabetes and a weakened immune system vulnerable to flu, tuberculosis and other infections.

Depends on your colour
It also turns out that the standard recommendation of 10-15 minutes per day is not suitable for everyone. That’s enough for those extremely light skinned people (think glow-in-the-dark white) who usually start to burn after more than 20 minutes but it’s not enough with those with darker skin.

Research is finding that the darker the pigmentation due to melanin (a natural sunscreen) the more sunlight is needed to synthesise vitamin D.

When Esteban Parra of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto studied the blood of 106 healthy students on the Mississauga campus, he was floored by the results:

European origin with lighter skin: 34 per cent were deficient

East Asian or Chinese descent: 85 per cent were deficient

South Asia descent (India): 93 per cent had insufficient levels.

African ancestry: 100 per cent deficient

Need for supplements
His findings are backed up by a number of other studies as well. After analyzing research published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood from 1994 to 2005, UK scientists and nutritionists came to the same conclusion. They are recommending that Asian and African children be given Vitamin D supplements.

Simple way
Unfortunately there is now a debate over how much Vitamin D is healthy. Too much is just as bad as too much.

Health Canada has not changed its daily recommendation from 400 IU of Vitamin D every day (sometimes written as 10 mcg) which amount to two cups of milk fortified with Vitamin D.

But the Canadian Cancer Society is recommending the dosage be 1,000 IU a day year-round for non-whites, and that amount in fall and winter for whites.

Of course, there is still the old fashioned way to get enough Vitamin D: take off some clothes and go lounge in the sun. You’re the best judge of when you start to burn.

Sources of Vitamin D

One cup fortified cow, soy or rice: 100 IU

3.5 ounces cooked salmon: 530 IU

3 ounces canned tuna: 200 IU

3.5 ounces liver or beef: 15

One egg yolks: 60 IU

One ounce Swiss cheese: 12

One tablespoon of regular cod liver: 1,360 IU (pregnant woman should consult their doctors)

Liam McCann is a regular contributor to Green Living. He wishes he could be out in the sun longer than five minutes before turning into lobster boy.




Tags: alternative health, sun, sunscreen, vitaminstag cloud.