Do you often suffer from tiredness, bone and back pain, or do you feel you catch more bugs than your colleagues? All of this can be a sign that, like almost one in three people in Germany, you are low on the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D.
You can find out relatively quickly whether this is the case for you with a full blood count at your next doctor's visit. And while you wait for your appointment, we'll fill you in today on what the sunshine vitamin is all about and which natural sources will top up your tanks again!
Water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins
First, the basics: what is the difference between the common vitamins?
In general, we distinguish between water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins. Water-soluble vitamins include the B vitamins and the well-known vitamin C, which is important for building collagen, carnitine and hormones, among other things. It also helps with iron absorption.
Water-soluble vitamins are often found in food. You can get the B-group vitamins from pulses, cheese, grains and also meat, for example. With B vitamins, too, the ones from animal sources are better usable for your body than those from plants. Fruit and vegetables, especially papaya, citrus fruits and strawberries, are good natural sources of vitamin C. Pineapple in particular is an especially high-quality source of vitamin C - with us it plays the main role in the refreshing juices The Good Life with pineapple juice and mint and The Glow with carrot and orange juice. Whether in a 3-day juice cleanse or a 7-day juice cleanse, you get The Good Life for every day of your frank. juice cleanse. Choose your individual Mix and Match Box if you'd like The Glow in your cleanse too.
Unlike water-soluble vitamins, fat-soluble vitamins only dissolve in fats and oils. These include vitamins A, D, E and K. You can remember them with the name of a well-known German supermarket chain: EDEKA.
Vitamins A and E are strong antioxidants. They offer protection against "free radicals", which are formed in the body through metabolic processes on the one hand and enter the body through external influences such as cigarette smoke, environmental pollutants and UV rays on the other. Free radicals are missing an electron, which they want to snatch from other molecules. If they succeed, chain reactions are set off and the well-known oxidative stress occurs. In high amounts, oxidative stress can attack your cells, worsen metabolic processes and even cause DNA damage. Uncontrolled cell division can then also lead to cancer! Back to the actual topic: the vitamins serve to protect the cell membranes from oxidative stress.
You can find vitamins A and E in peanuts, vegetable oils and carrots, for example. If you don't eat a purely vegetarian diet, you can also reach for salmon and liver to work the vitamins into your meal plan. Here, much smaller amounts are enough to reach your daily requirement than with plant sources.
With vitamin K, we distinguish between vitamin K1 and K2. Vitamin K1, also called phylloquinone, promotes blood clotting and protects the arteries from arteriosclerosis.
Vitamin K2, also known as menaquinone, plays an important role in your calcium metabolism and is therefore particularly relevant for bone building. Green vegetables in particular are rich in vitamin K1. The rule here: the darker green, the more vitamin K2 it contains! So feel free to reach for leaf salad, cabbage vegetables and herbs such as oregano, basil or chives. Vitamin K2 is produced by bacteria found in the human gut. Foods such as hard cheese and quark are therefore also beneficial for obtaining vitamin K2.
So much for water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins. Let's get back to our sunshine vitamin.
The sunshine vitamin D - how you absorb it
Like vitamins A, E and K (keyword: EDEKA), vitamin D is one of the fat-soluble vitamins. But unlike the vitamins described above, there are only a few foods that are rich in vitamin D, so vitamin D can only be absorbed through food to a limited extent.
Vitamin D is not just one single vitamin, but a whole group of them. The best-known forms include vitamin D3, also called cholecalciferol, which is mainly found in animal foods. Vitamin D2, also called ergocalciferol, on the other hand, comes mainly from plant sources.
A far more important source of vitamin D is sunlight. Under direct sunlight, that is under UV-B light, your body produces vitamin D by itself in the skin. Up to 80% of your vitamin D supply can be traced back to production through the skin. That's why it's recommended to expose your body, especially your face, arms and hands, to direct sunlight without sun protection at least 2-3 times a week. You can also increase your vitamin D intake by moving around while you're in the sun! Always make sure you don't get any redness or sunburn. You'll notice that it's hard to keep up your sun quota, especially in autumn, winter and spring. That's why it can often make sense to supplement vitamin D.
The sunshine vitamin D - how it works
Getting enough vitamin D is especially important to support bone metabolism, because the vitamin promotes the absorption of calcium and phosphate from the gut and their incorporation into the bones. That makes it absolutely essential for bone mineralisation.
The vitamin is also relevant when it comes to forming proteins and regulating a large number of genes. Scientists assume there is a connection between vitamin D supply and chronic illnesses, and that vitamin D may be of importance for preventive measures in relation to type 2 diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure and cancers. As for Covid-19, there are also first signs that a sufficient supply of vitamin D may be linked to a milder course of illness. However, no conclusive studies or evidence are known on this yet.
How a vitamin D deficiency shows up
If you're reading this blog article while relaxing in a deckchair in Spain, in the Caribbean or in some other sun-kissed paradise, you should worry less about your vitamin D levels. But if you're one of the less fortunate ones who still call Good Old Germany home, you may well be low on vitamin D at least once in your life.
In the case of severe deficiency, food supplements can be used. However, this should always be agreed with your doctor, as an overdose of the vitamin can also be harmful to health. Unlike water-soluble vitamins, excess fat-soluble vitamins cannot be flushed out through the urine. Nausea, vomiting, migraine and heart rhythm disturbances can be signs of a creeping overdose. In this case you should see a doctor urgently.
How you can counteract a vitamin D deficiency
As already mentioned, you can actively counteract vitamin D deficiency with little effort. We recommend soaking up as much of the sunshine vitamin as possible on regular walks, bike rides or runs. Or how about spending your next lunch break on a sunny day on a nearby bench and taking an active break from the office routine? We recommend enjoying every nice day and getting the sunshine vitamin in a natural way.
By the way, good news for those otherwise much-hated fat pads too! Muscle and fatty tissue are ideal for storage. So over the sunny months, or on good-weather days in winter, you can build up reserves that your body can draw on in the gloomy season.
