Winter is here, and it is that time of the year when the exposure to sunlight is less and a sedentary lifestyle takes over everything. There’s no denying that, pain in the joints, brittle nails or fragile hair or excessive back ache all these issues can silently indicate towards slackening Vitamin D levels, which may trigger some mild to serious ailments and also affect overall immunity of the body.Well, if you are blaming fatigue, pain and inflammation on weather and absence of sunlight, then we have curated a list of common foods that can fix vitamin d deficiency naturally and also boost overall health and immunity.
Is Vitamin D essential?
Vitamin D controls important functions of the body, but our body can only produce Vitamin D when exposed to sunlight, which is the best source of Vitamin D. However, there are certain foods that also help boost vitamin D levels, when consumed regularly. Here are some Vitamin D rich foods that are great for health.
Egg Yolk
Adding egg yolk to the daily diet can help in improving Vitamin D levels. Apart from that, including egg yolks to the daily diet can boost protein and zinc, which further help in boosting overall health. Lastly, consuming egg yolks can meet the body's daily need of Vitamin D by 5% per serving.
Mushrooms
Mushrooms can make for a good source of vitamin D as it is exposed to sun and this helps in better synthesizing of vitamin D2 when exposed to UV rays. Most wild mushrooms make for a good source of vitamin D.
Salmon
Salmon is yet another source of Vitamin D, both wild salmon and farmed salmon have high amounts of vitamin D, but wild salmon can meet up to 160% of the daily value of the body's vitamin D requirement.
Herring
Herring fish is yet another source of natural Vitamin D. This small fish can be smoked, pickled or cooked to get the best of its daily and nutritional value. A 100 gm serving of this fish can meet up to 14% of the body total requirement of vitamin D.
Cow’s milk
Cow’s milk is naturally rich in essential nutrients and is a great source of healthy fats and proteins, but commercially extracted cow’s milk is fortified with vitamin D, which helps in better absorption of calcium in milk and makes the bones strong.
Soy milk
Soy is a plant based source of proteins and essential nutrients. However, the fortified soy milk has a higher percentage of Vitamin D and can meet 15 percent of the body's Vitamin D requirement in just one serving.
Oatmeal
Oats are another healthy source of essential nutrients and are fortified with essential nutrients and vitamin D, which makes it great for health. Adding oats to the diet not only helps in boosting Vitamin d levels, but at the same time can help reduce bad cholesterol levels naturally.
Orange juice
Orange juice is naturally rich in vitamin C and essential nutrients, but in some cases it is fortified with vitamin d for better absorption of nutrients. Fortified orange juice can meet up to 12 percent of the body's daily requirement of vitamin D.