Vitamin D rich foods are an essential part of your diet to keep your muscles, bone, and teeth healthy. Also called the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin family, including D1, D2, and D3. Your body can indeed produce vitamin D naturally with sunlight. Still, if you need adequate levels of the vitamin in your body, you need to add foods rich in vitamin D.
Here are some of the surprising and essential reasons why your diet should have more vitamin D rich foods.
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Vitamin D rich foods give immunity
This vitamin’s primary benefit is reducing the risk of several complicated diseases like multiple sclerosis, heart conditions, and others. In 2006, the Journal of AMA proved that vitamin D helps to reduce the risk of getting multiple sclerosis. In 2010, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition proved that adequate vitamin D in the system would reduce flu risk. Vitamin D helps in optimal absorption of phosphorus and calcium. These micronutrients are essential for the immune system.
Fight depression with vitamin D rich foods
Vitamin D plays an imperative role in mood regulation and fighting depression. According to a study, people with depression showed betterment in terms of symptoms when given supplements for vitamin D. Prolonged deficiency can lead to depression and anxiety, according to a study conducted on individuals with fibromyalgia.
Lose weight with vitamin D rich foods
A combination of vitamin D and calcium supplements can aid in losing weight, according to a study. The combination helps in suppressing appetite, which helps to maintain a healthy diet. Vitamin D cannot reduce your weight as a standalone element. It would help if you had a healthy diet and a regular exercise regime for the same.
Blood pressure regulation with vitamin D rich foods
Vitamin D helps to keep the blood pressure under check. It can also reduce the risk of heart problems caused by blood pressure or other conditions. RAS (renin-angiotensin system) can cause hypertension when its activity increases. Vitamin D helps to inhibit the system, thereby keeping blood pressure under check.
Add vitamin D rich foods for your skin
Vitamin D rich foods can help to reduce premature skin aging, skin dryness, and other conditions. The vitamin also safeguards the skin from sun damage by improving repair, growth, and metabolism rate. High quality supplements have high anti-inflammatory properties too. It also helps in treating skin conditions like eczema, dry skin, psoriasis, and others. People with low vitamin D levels are more prone to severe acne.
Improve your sexual performance with vitamin D
According to a recent study, vitamin D deficiency can lead to poor sexual performance in men. Vitamin D helps in protecting the endothelial cells from damages caused by oxidative stress. Thereby, the individual can maintain erection and have better sexual health.
Have lustrous hair with vitamin D rich diet
Vitamin D’s primary objective is better calcium absorption, which in turn leads to good hair health. Moreover, high deficiency can lead to alopecia (spot baldness). This vitamin plays an essential role in stimulating hair follicles to grow new strands. Some studies in mice show that vitamin D helps to reduce hair shedding too.
Smile better with vitamin D rich diet
Calcium plays an important role in your oral health. Vitamin D helps to avoid gum diseases and tooth decay. Vitamin D also improves immunity, which avoids infection in the soft tissues around your teeth. Since vitamin D avoid germ growth in the oral cavity, you can fight bad breath with vitamin D rich foods. If you are looking for an effective solution, a combination of Vitamin D, zinc, and vitamin B is essential for avoiding bad breath.
Vitamin D foods and fetus growth
Vitamin D helps in better fetus development, especially during the initial stages of gestation (up to 12th week of gestation). It helps to fight inflammation in the placenta and other adverse conditions. During the early stages of pregnancy, adequate vitamin D will regulate calcium, which aids in better skeletal development. Beyond calcium-based benefits, vitamin D also helps avoid preterm birth, glucose intolerance, and other problems, leading to adverse birth outcomes. A good vitamin D diet during pregnancy can avoid childhood asthma and provide better immunity during early infancy.
Vitamin D vs autism and ADHD
Vitamin D treatment is one of the many treatments for improving cognitive functions in autistic and hyperactive kids. Deficiency in vitamin D3 can lead to alteration in the brain shape, leading to higher autism risk. A vitamin D rich diet can reduce the core symptoms of such individuals and improve therapy and treatments’ efficiency. Vitamin D foods or supplements cannot cure or prevent autism.
Sleep tight with vitamin D
Vitamin D is not a cure for insomnia. However, deficiency in vitamin D can lead to numerous sleep problems, including insomnia. The deficiency of vitamin D will considerably reduce the number of hours of quality sleep, and lead to sleep apnea, OSAS, and others. Chronic sleep deprivation can lead to fatigue, mental illness, anxiety, depression, lack of concentration, weight gain, and other problems.
Muscular stamina and endurance with vitamin D
Deficiency in vitamin D for a prolonged time can cause weakness in muscles. An individual with vitamin D deficiency for eight months will have leaner body mass and worse stamina. Moreover, vitamin D also reduces the risk of anemia, stress fracture, muscle injury, and others. The cells absorb oxygen efficiently when there is adequate vitamin D, and produce enough energy to improve the performance.
There is no requirement of adding vitamin D supplements to your diet unless you have a deficiency. If you want to start consuming supplements, talk to your doctor about the dose. If an individual consumes a very high amount of vitamin D, it could lead to kidney problems, bone pain, calcium buildup in blood, calcium stones, etc. Thus, it is best to stick with the natural sources of vitamin D.
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