Let the Sun Shine

If you have type 2 diabetes, or if you’ve been diagnosed with a pre-diabetic condition, you may be deficient in one vitamin that could help make a big difference in your health.

I’m not talking about vitamin C or vitamin E, although both of these vitamins have been shown to be essential in helping prevent kidney disease in diabetics.

According to research from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vitamin D may play a key role in glucose metabolism. But what are the best sources?

Light of day

The best dietary sources of vitamin D are eggs, liver, fish liver oils, and oily fish such as salmon, sardines, trout, and tuna. But by far, the best source of vitamin D is through sun exposure. When your skin is exposed to ultraviolet light, your body responds by manufacturing vitamin D.

Of course, the idea of sun exposure runs against the current popular “wisdom” that you should completely avoid sunlight unless covered scalp to ankles with sunblock. But sun exposure is not only good, it’s essential. The damage that can set the stage for skin cancer comes when exposure is extreme and results in sunburned skin.

Unfortunately, the amount of sun needed to prompt the body to create vitamin D is only available in most of the U.S. during the summer months. For the remainder of the year – and for those who live in extreme northern and southern latitudes – the most accessible source of vitamin D is from fish oil supplements.

But before you begin taking fish oil supplements, there are two important details to keep in mind:

• · If you get regular, daily sun exposure during the summer, chances are you don’t need a D supplement during those three months of the year
• · Choose a fish oil supplement that’s “molecularly distilled” to insure that toxins are kept to a minimum

  The current RDA for vitamin D is only 200 IU for people under 51, 400 IU for adults 51 to 70, and 600 IU for those over 70. However, unless you have a hypersensitivity to vitamin D experts often advocate higher, proven-safe, doses of 700 IU up to 4,000 IU a day.

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