Sunshine vitamin under the spotlight

Sun, sun, and more sun: For many the summer months are about being outside and enjoying the sunshine. And this means vitamin D! As summer really kicks in, we look back at this year’s big vitamin D news so far.

Top vitamin D story of 2011 was “Vitamin D supplements under threat from functional foods: Euromonitor”, about how functional foods, multivitamins and fish oil are an increasing threat to single vitamin D supplements.

Next up was “Vitamin D3 ’87 percent more potent’ than D2: Study”, about research led by Robert Heaney, MD, from Creighton University in Nebraska about how vitamin D3 may be more potent than D2.

Similar to the first article, the third article on the list is May’s “Food insufficient for Canadian vitamin D intakes”. Findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition indicate that 25 percent of the 5,306 participants of the Canadian Health Measures Survey had blood levels below the RDA of 50 nanomoles per liter…

Number 4 goes to January’s “Vitamin D qualified cancer health claim submission being readied”. The Alliance for Natural Health-USA (ANH-USA) announced its move to submit a dossier under the qualified health claims system to link vitamin D consumption with reduced rates of certain types of cancer.

“Calcium + vit D for breakfast show weight management potential” completes our top five. Australian researchers reported in Clinical Nutrition that a breakfast containing calcium and vitamin D was associated with significantly increased fat and energy burning over 24 hours.