Healthy Food Choices for Vitamin D

Vitamin D is an important nutrient for the maintenance of organ systems, including kidney function and bone formation. Try these tips for buying foods rich in vitamin D in this healthy shopping video.

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Helps the body absorb calcium
Found in milk, oysters, & fortified cereals
Excessive vitamin D may lead to kidney stones

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Michelle Cooper has been a registered dietician for more than 10 years. She currently works for the state of North Carolina for the New Hanover County School District in the Child Nutrition Department as the supervising registered dietician on staff. She specializes in child nutrition, child fitness and overall child health. She enjoys her job because it allows her to be a pivotal piece of child development.

MICHELLE COOPER: Next, we're going to talk about vitamin D. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that's stored in the fatty tissues of our body. It actually helps you absorb calcium; therefore, vitamin D is found in dairy foods just like calcium. As you see behind me, milk, cream and butter. However, you can also get vitamin D from fortified cereals, oysters and some other food sources. The best way to obtain your daily requirement of vitamin D is by eating various foods from the food guide pyramid. However, vitamin D is also known as the sunshine vitamin. Your body can actually manufacture vitamin D after being out in the sun for about 10 minutes. You can get your vitamin D requirement by being outside three times a week for 10 minutes at a time. A deficiency of vitamin D can actually lead to osteoporosis in adults and rickets in children. However, because they're stored in the fat, you can also get too much Vitamin D which could cause calcium deposits in your soft tissue and could lead to kidney stones. So remember, to get what you need of vitamin D, eat plenty of foods from the food guide pyramid and make sure that you get enough from the dairy group so that you absorb the calcium needed to prevent osteoporosis. And number two, you can always go outside if you don't like these foods because your body will manufacture vitamin D from the sunshine.

Healthy Food Choices for Vitamin D Video

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