Boost your vitamin D in the rain!

Ireland has often been described as being 40 shades of green but we also have about 40 terms to describe rain and cloudy weather. 

Just like the Inuit, the native people of Greenland who are reported to have more that 100 phrases to describe snow, so we Irish are obsessed with all forms of rain, cloudy or foggy weather.  It all adds up to a showery, at times murky climate that is not good for Vitamin D!

Vitamin D is often referred as the sunshine vitamin; this is because our bodies can produce vitamin D when our skin is exposed to sunlight. The body uses vitamin D to help the bones collect and use calcium. Lack of vitamin D causes the bone disease rickets in children and osteomalcia in adults. 

   
So what do we do when it literally bucketing down from the heaven, how we can insure that our bones get the vitamin D we need? Well thankfully Mother Nature has stepped in to help those living in such a damp climate!  Vitamin D is found in margarine, fortified breakfast cereals, dairy products, oily fish and egg yolks. So perhaps when the day is described as ‘soft day thank god’, to get an enough vitamin D, you should eat at least some of these foods!

Although May officially marks the start of summer, if this trend continues it looks like last year was the exception and we’re in for another soggy affair so make sure to catch any rays while we can but for insurance include some Vitamin D rich foods to keep you  topped up for D! 

For more information on any of the issues discussed above or for more information on diet and nutrition, please contact Maria at The Community Nutrition and Dietetic Service, HSE Dublin-Mid Leinster on (044) 9395518 or email community.dietitians@hse.ie.