I remember reading all these British novels and being always fascinated on why would anyone be so interested in talking about the weather all the freakin time. Ah well, once I moved to Germany I had an aha-moment within a month or two. Living on the Mediterranean, weather is boring. In summer it's predictably sunny and hot. In winter it's rainy and a tad bit cold. Here, the weather is crazy, dropping or rising 10-15 °C on a whim. But what makes us obsessed is the "will it rain?" question. Pure unadulterated sunshine is a precious occasion in Aachen that after one winter here, anyone will join the massive crowds that pour outside to catch a glimpse of the sun.
I digress. The winter blues I suffered every winter (literally losing the will to do much and wanting to sit around all day) eventually led to me reading about vitamin D. Apparently it's very "in" right now, with research papers being published left and right, websites and blogs dedicating long articles, and a Vitamin D Council too.
Turns out that Vitamin D does not only help with the winter blues, it has a vital role in our immunity system and its deficiency is also implicated with a lot of chronic diseases, most interesting of which is cancer:
My own experience? As a study of one person, I started taking 5000 IU vitamin D3 a day this winter and I definitely notice a huge difference. So far I've suffered no winter blues and my energy levels are as good as the summer. The best thing ever is (knock wood) I've been exposed to several sick people (including swine flu though not 100% sure) and did not catch anything. Now this is far from conclusive evidence but since this is the only thing I changed, at least for me it works.
Here's the lecture. Again the guy is quite entertaining to listen to.
Hmm. Fascinating. You know they put Vitamin D in milk here. Since I don't get too much sun exposure and wear sunblock all the time because I don't like my face turning red, I've been taking fish oil, but I just ran out. I think I should go buy some more (or maybe get some cod liver oil).
ReplyDeleteI don't really like taking vitamins alone, and much prefer taking something more natural. Although I have been taking a Ca+Mg+Zn supplement but the problem with that is I don't take it on days when I've had the Ca RDA through dairy (I worry about too much Calcium).
This supplement stuff can really become an expensive headache :|
Cod Liver Oil has comparatively little Vitamin D in it (not time to google but I think it was less than 1000 IU per regular dose). Seeing that you live somewhere very sunny, I'd catch some sun. Like the guy said, you need at most 20 minutes in bright sunlight. Not enough time to burn!
ReplyDeleteNext post will be from south of France with pics (hopefully)!
Just looked it up. It's got 113 IU /gram (or 1 capsule). The RDA of vitamin D is 400 IU, but I don't think that's right.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I don't take it for vitamin D, but for Omega-3 and vitamin A. But I think along with what's in milk (100 IU/serving), all the seafood I eat in restaurants it should be a decent supplement to sun.
And yes, during summer even with well applied sunblock I get lightly burned if I spend more than 10 minutes facing direct sunlight. This is 40deg.C Sun we're talking about. In winter I don't wear it much, unless it's a warm day.
400 IU is way way too little. I think Canada just updated their recommendation to 2000 IU. If you sit in the sun for those 20 minutes, you'll be making at least 10 000 IU per day.
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