Vitamin D Overview

Recommendations

The best way to get the daily requirement of essential vitamins is to eat a balanced diet that contains a variety of foods from the food guide pyramid .

Vitamin D is also known as the "sunshine vitamin" because the body manufactures the vitamin after being exposed to sunshine. Ten to 15 minutes of sunshine 3 times weekly is enough to produce the body's requirement of vitamin D.

Specific recommendations for each vitamin depend on age, gender, and other factors (such as pregnancy). In general, those over age 50 need slighly higher amounts of vitamin D than younger persons.