Vitamin D is vital, but it’s not always easy to get your daily amount in colder countries such as the UK. Vitamin D is made by the skin on contact with sunlight. As a rule, if your shadow is longer than you are tall, you won’t be producing enough vitamin D from your skin.
As a result, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that all adults in the UK take a daily supplement containing 400IU (10mcg) of vitamin D from October to March. Vitamin D2 vs D3
Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is the form most important for human health, and is the best form to take as a supplement. Traditionally, vitamin D sourced from plants has been the D2 form (ergocalciferol).
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Vitamin D keeps our bones healthy by helping to control the amount of calcium and phosphate in our bodies. Some people say that vitamin D is not really a vitamin because we can make it when our skin is exposed to sunlight. However, in the UK, there are concerns that we do not make enough to keep our bones and muscles healthy.
It is recommended that all of us get some vitamin D from our diet during autumn and winter, and some of us may need a dietary intake all year round. Experts have provided the following advice about supplementation:
Group
Provide/use vitamin D drops/supplement
People aged 5+ years Supplement during autumn and winter, but you might choose not to use one during spring and summer Pregnancy and breastfeeding Yes Breastfed babies Yes Formula-fed babies having less than 500ml per day Yes Children 1–4 years old Yes People who do not expose their skin to sunlight regularly Yes People with darker skin Yes
If you choose to boost your level of vitamin D by exposing your skin to sunlight during spring and summer, make sure that it does not burn. Aim to spend short periods exposing your skin to sunlight daily, particularly between 11am and 3pm.
Considerations for vegans
It is difficult for anyone to get a daily vitamin D intake of 10mcg from food. When choosing a supplement, be aware that some types of vitamin D are not vegan-friendly. Vitamin D2 is always suitable for vegans, but vitamin D3 can be derived from an animal source (such as sheep’s wool) or lichen (a vegan-friendly source).
Take-away tips
Check The Public Health Advice In Your Country – When Do You Need To Use A Vitamin D Supplement?
These are general guidelines about nutrition.
Vitamin D2 Vs D3
Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is the form most important for human health, and is the best form to take as a supplement. Traditionally, vitamin D sourced from plants has been the D2 form (ergocalciferol).
This has a slightly different structure to vitamin D3, which makes it less beneficial for maintaining vitamin D levels in the body.1
The researchers behind Healthspan’s Vegan Vitamin D3 worked with several universities and research groups to develop a scalable process to produce Vitamin D3 from a 100% plant source. This not only makes the supplements suitable for vegans, but also cuts down the carbon produced during the production proces.
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More than half a million people in the UK define themselves as vegans, and it’s a lifestyle that more and more people adopt every day for a range of motivations, whether it’s environmental, health-based or animal welfare related.
Those on a vegan diet have to ensure that they get the nutrients typically found in these products from other sources.
How Most Vitamin D3 Is Made
Lanolin is added to many food and non-food products (e.g. Here’s a brief description of the process from a research paper, just so you have a credible source:
It is produced commercially by extracting 7-dehydrocholesterol from wool fat, followed by UVB irradiation and purification.
You might think “what’s the harm in extracting it from sheep’s wool?”
At first it doesn’t seem so bad, but animal abuse is common practice in the wool industry. Summary Bottom line: Any wool product, including lanolin-derived vitamin D3, is not vegan.