Your body creates vitamin D when your skin is exposed directly to the sun. This natural sun-synthesis provides most people with some of the vitamin D they need each day. Vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption, maintaining healthy bones, strengthening immunity and helping nerves transport messages from the brain throughout the body. Adults and children spend more time indoors, so exposure to direct sunlight is limited. You can increase your vitamin D through diet and supplements, but few foods naturally contain vitamin D. To protect people from vitamin D deficiency, food products may be fortified with synthetic D vitamins.
Fish
Fish liver oils and flesh from fatty, oily fish are the best natural sources for vitamin D. One tablespoon of cod liver oil provides more vitamin D -- 1,360 international units or 340 percent of your daily requirement -- than any other food. Fish that eat plankton-rich diets, such as sockeye salmon, herring and catfish, have especially high concentrations of vitamin D. Just 3 oz. of cooked sockeye salmon provides almost twice the daily recommended value of vitamin D, according to the Office of Dietary Supplement's Vitamin D Fact Sheet. Another vitamin D-rich fish is mackerel, with 3 oz fulfilling 100 percent of your daily need. Canned sardines and tuna supply some of the vitamin D you need every day. Because vitamin D is a stable compound, cooking or storage does not decrease the levels of nutrients in fish or crustaceans.
Mushrooms
Mushrooms are a rich source of vitamin D, and this is one food with vitamin D that vegans and vegetarians can eat. Button mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms supply vitamin D and B vitamins. Dried shiitake mushrooms have even higher amounts of Vitamin D, possibly because they absorb more sunlight when being dried. To obtain the benefits of the highest Vitamin D content, be sure you buy and eat mushrooms that have been sun-dried not by an artificial drying process. Some mushrooms now available in stores have been exposed to ultraviolet light to increase the vitamin D content. According to the Linus Pauling Institute, a mycologist named Paul Stamets reported that eating one gram or about 1/10 of one sun-treated shiitake mushroom would supply a full daily dose of vitamin D.
Fortified Foods
Many foods found at grocery stores -- especially commonly consumed staples -- have been fortified with a synthetic form of Vitamin D to help people of all ages meet their daily vitamin requirements. Almost all milk produced and sold in the U.S. is fortified with 400 international units of vitamin D per quart. However, foods that contain milk, such as cheese, ice cream and butter, are not usually fortified and contain little or no vitamin D. The U.S. Food and Nutrition Board recommends 400 IU each day for babies up to 12 months old; 600 IU for children and adults, ages 1 to 70 years old; and 800 IU for seniors who are over 70 years old. Fortified milk provides about 100 IU of vitamin D per 8 oz cup. Fortified yogurt products contain 80 IU or about 20 percent of the recommended amount of vitamin D. Breakfast cereals, such as most ready-to-eat cold cereals and some instant oatmeal, are fortified with at least 10 percent of the vitamin D you need each day. Some manufacturers fortify orange juice, soy milk and soy baby formula with vitamin D and calcium, which benefits infants, children and adults who do not drink enough milk to satisfy the requirements for these nutrients. Eggs themselves are not fortified, but the yolks of eggs provide some vitamin D if the eggs are laid by hens whose feed contains D vitamins.
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