By: James Carpentier
Of all the vitamin bottles found in pharmacies and nutrition stores, there is one vitamin that you can get for free. Can you guess which one? Hint: It’s probably the hottest vitamin discussed in both medical and scientific circles, and it has been widely publicized in newspapers and magazines during the past few years. Don’t know? Well, here’s another clue that appears in the lyrics of an 80-year-old song — music and words by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh from their 1929 tune, “On The Sunny Side Of The Street”:
Grab your coat and get your hat, leave your worries on the doorstep; Just direct your feet to the sunny side of the street. Can’t you hear that pitter-pat?
And that happy tune is your step! Life can be complete on the sunny side of the street. I used to walk in the shade with those blues on parade. But I’m not afraid – this rover has crossed over! If I never had a cent, I’d be rich as Rockefeller – gold dust at my feet on the sunny side of the street.
‘Sunny.’ ‘Hottest.’ Give up? The mysterious vitamin is vitamin D —also known as the ‘sunshine vitamin.’ And, with the upcoming cold weather in late fall and winter, you would be wise to grab your coat and get your hat and visit Ol Sol every day for at least 10-15 minutes, whether he’s shining brightly in the winter sky or hidden behind clouds. According to the latest medical research, “As many as 75 percent of Americans may not be getting enough vitamin D for optimal health. Doctors have known for years that vitamin D is good for bones, but now researchers are finding that vitamin D — often called the sunshine vitamin because your body produces it when exposed to the sun — may help ward off a whole host of illnesses, including cancer and heart disease.” Harvard scientists recently found “that among 18,000 men they’ve been tracking since 1993, those with the highest blood levels of vitamin D were the least likely to have heart attacks, while those with the lowest levels had the highest risk.” Colleen Pierre, a registered dietician stated, “Now some doctors are recommending 10 to 15 minutes of sun exposure a few times a week. Those who don’t go out much should consider a 1,000-IU (international units) vitamin D supplement daily.”
But, before you take the easy way out and buy vitamin D supplements, if you are ‘afraid to cross over,’ and venture outdoors into the sunlight during those blustery wintry days, consider this: Pierre states that the sun “outshines food as your best source of vitamin D. To get the vitamin D value of a (10 minute) exposure to sunlight, you’d have to eat 6 ½ pounds of shiitake mushrooms, 150 egg yolks or 3 ¾ pounds of fresh farmed salmon, 30 servings of fortified cereal, 2 1/6 pounds of sardines or 30 cups of fortified orange juice.” According to Parade magazine, even the richest dietary sources of vitamin D such as fish, eggs, fortified dairy and soy milk products do not provide enough daily units of vitamin D as compared with sun exposure. Parade mentions: “Stronger bones, a better immune system, protection from some cancers, lower blood pressure, clearer skin and a healthier brain. These are just a few of the apparent benefits of the strangest of vitamins — vitamin D. Unlike all other vitamins, vitamin D is made by our bodies, but it requires sunshine. The problem is, we’re just not getting as much as we used to or enough to make the vitamin D our bodies need. We spend too much time indoors, and when we do go outdoors, we’re using sunblock, which blocks the ultraviolet rays that create vitamin D.”
As for boosting brain health, well, perhaps Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh also realized just how powerful the sun’s rays were towards promoting a ‘sunnier’ disposition when they wrote 80 years ago about ‘walking in the shade with those blues on parade’ and ‘leaving your worries on the doorstep’ and intuitively encouraging everyone to spend more time ‘on the sunny side of the street.’ It turns out that spending too much time in the ‘shade’ (or indoors in your dorm room, house, classroom or office each day this winter and throughout the year) can indeed lead to a case of the ‘blues.’ According to the Washington Post, “In winter’s gray and cold days, the midday work blues can hit hard. If you feel tired, lethargic or unmotivated during the day…Take a walk to get the blood pumping to your heart and brain. A walk outside in the sun also will activate vitamin D in your body and improve your mood.” Well, a daily walk outside in sunlight this winter and throughout the year will not make you ‘as rich as Rockefeller,’ but when you get those 10 to 15 minutes of healthful vitamin D while walking in the sun each day, you may indeed feel like a million bucks!
