Need Vitamin D? Get Some Sun

For decades, we’ve known that vitamin D helps preserve bone strength, and recent research suggests that it may help to fend off certain cancers and rheumatoid arthritis. So it’s too bad that most of us don’t have enough of it. Sally Squiers, our healthful eating guru at the Washington Post, writes about new research that indicates that while vitamin D is plentiful in most children and teens, it is sadly lacking in older people. The study, funded by the federal government and conducted by Boston University, determined that our widespread lack of vitamin D is caused in large part by a widespread lack of time spend in the sunlight. That’s because unlike other essential nutrients vitamin D is made by the skin, which requires ultraviolet light to produce the vitamin from cholesterol.
So how much time should we spend in the sun? According to the Post, dark-skinned people need a couple of hours in the sun each day, while light-skinned people can get by with 15 minutes, providing they don’t use sunblock.  And older people of all complexions need a good deal more than younger people, because the skin’s ability to make vitamin D declines significantly with age.