{"id":315,"date":"2013-01-02T11:30:12","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T11:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/?p=315"},"modified":"2018-08-29T15:13:48","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T15:13:48","slug":"a-saviour-snacks-guide-to-vitamin-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/01\/a-saviour-snacks-guide-to-vitamin-d\/","title":{"rendered":"A Saviour Snacks guide to Vitamin D"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were recently chatting with Lisa Blair, our friends at Saviour Snacks<\/a> in-house nutritionist, about the importance of Vitamin D and thought January would be the perfect time to share her words of wisdom..<\/p>\n

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50% of the UK population are vitamin D deficient \u2013 do you know your number?<\/b><\/p>\n

We used to think that vitamin D was mainly important for bone health, but now hardly a month goes by without another research report being published with yet more compelling evidence of the importance of this vitamin.<\/p>\n

Signs that you are\u00a0low<\/b><\/p>\n

General symptoms\u00a0include:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 general tiredness<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 vague aches and pains and muscle\u00a0weakness<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 bone\u00a0pain<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 low mood and depression<\/p>\n

Apart from these, more serious conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and autoimmune diseases and even Alzheimer\u2019s have all been associated with inadequate levels of vitamin\u00a0D.<\/p>\n

Key sources of this nutrient<\/b><\/p>\n

Food sources –\u00a0<\/b>These are limited to: oily fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel and sardines along with eggs, milk and shiitake mushrooms.\u00a0 There are also some fortified foods available such as juice and\u00a0yoghurt.<\/p>\n

Sunshine –\u00a0<\/b>You can top up your levels really well by sitting in the sunshine but it is important that you do use sunblock\u00a0and<\/i>\u00a0are sensible about avoiding sunburn.\u00a0 People with darker skin have to spend longer in the sunshine to top up their\u00a0levels.<\/p>\n

For six months of the year, between October to April, much of Western Europe (including 90% of the UK) is too far north to have enough UVB rays in its sunlight to make vitamin D in the skin. So, many people in the UK are at risk of not getting enough vitamin D during these months unless they get it from other\u00a0sources.<\/p>\n

Supplements –\u00a0<\/b>Another option is to use a supplement. NHS guidelines state a maximum of 1000iu per day and it\u2019s probably best not to deviate from this without the advice of a heath professional as it is certainly possible to have too much of a good thing. \u00a0Vitamin D3 is the active form of the nutrient so may be more effective than other forms, such as vitamin\u00a0D2.<\/p>\n

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble nutrient so best taken as a supplement with your biggest meal of the day and one that includes a little fat.\u00a0 People who eat very low fat diets can be at greater risk of deficiency.<\/p>\n

Lisa Blair, Saviour Snacks<\/a>‘ in-house nutritional therapist says \u201cmy advice to minimise any health risks from this deficiency is to get a blood test done to check your level and deal with any deficiency that you find. Given that 50% of the UK population is low in this vital nutrient it is highly likely to be a problem for you and\u00a0it is easy to do something about\u00a0it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thanks again to Lisa over at Saviour Snacks! It’s a New Year, so make it a new you with some added Vitamin D!<\/p>\n

For more recipes, tips and information, visit the Saviour Snacks website.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were recently chatting with Lisa Blair, our friends at Saviour Snacks in-house nutritionist, about the importance of Vitamin D and thought January would be the perfect time to share her words of wisdom.. 50% of the UK population are vitamin D deficient \u2013 do you know your number? We used to think that vitamin … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10,1],"tags":[93,9,30,94,12,95,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-families","category-inspiring-families","category-uncategorized","tag-eggs","tag-families-2","tag-food","tag-health","tag-kids","tag-mackeral","tag-milk","tag-salmon","tag-saviour-snacks","tag-shitake-mushrooms","tag-sun","tag-sunshine","tag-vitamin-d","tag-yoghurt","tag-yogurt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5840,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions\/5840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlebird.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}