Young children are given vitamin D drops when they are born, so how beneficial is it for us adults to boost our intake with extra vitamin D every day? Our biomedical expert Erik answers one of the many questions we have received through our Q&A on social media:
- Vitamin D is a common recommendation and often a justified one for other age groups as well, especially up here in the north. However, many factors come into play, and there is a lack of new, broad and representative studies on vitamin D levels in the blood of Swedes after the dietary reference levels were increased in 2018. The studies that are available show that the levels in certain groups are often unsatisfactory, for example among people with darker skin and older people who spend little time outdoors. As we know, we can synthesize the active vitamin D hormone ourselves through exposure to the sun, but only during the summer months and only at times of the day when the sun is high enough in the sky.
In any case, the Swedish Food Agency recommends supplements for everyone over the age of 75, but also for adults who do not eat fish or foods fortified with vitamin D, as well as for anyone who is not exposed to sunlight during the summer. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are also given the same recommendation if they fall into any of these groups.
There are therefore relevant amounts of vitamin D3 in both fortified dairy products and fatty fish. For example, 500 ml of milk provides what we call the Daily Reference Intake of vitamin D, but the Recommended Daily Intake is usually four times higher than that, corresponding to 2 litres of milk.
I also think it is important to mention that the levels of the active vitamin D hormone in the blood can be divided into several ranges. Within the reference range, which is where we should be, there is a subcategory in the higher part of the range known as optimal levels. For many people, it is of course desirable to be within this range rather than at levels between deficiency and optimal.
