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How to get enough vitamin D

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How to get enough vitamin D
What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that’s crucial for maintaining healthy bones and muscles. It’s technically a hormone, not a vitamin.

Why is vitamin D important for health?

Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium. It supports bone health, muscle function, and the immune system. Deficiency can lead to osteoporosis (brittle bones) and rickets (brittle, poorly developed bones in children).

It’s estimated one in four Australians are vitamin D deficient. Certain groups are more prone to vitamin D deficiency. These include:

  • Older adults, as the body becomes less efficient at producing vitamin D
  • People with darker skin, as higher melanin levels reduced the skin’s ability to produce vitamin D from the sun
  • People who cover up, spend a lot of time indoors, or who live in Southern areas of Australia, as reduced exposure to the sun reduces the body’s ability to produce vitamin D
  • Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people have higher rates of vitamin D deficiency
Tips for getting enough vitamin D

In Australia, the primary source of vitamin D is sunlight. When your skin is exposed to UVB rays it produces vitamin D.

You can get some vitamin D from food. Good sources of vitamin D include:

  1. Oily fish like salmon, trout and mackerel. Check out these NMNT recipes that use oily fish.
  2. Egg yolks. Check out these delicious egg recipes.
  3. Margarine and oil spreads (e.g., olive oil spread), as Australian manufacturers must add vitamin D to these products.
  4. Some but not all milks, breakfast cereals and milk drink powders (e.g., malted milk) have vitamin D added. Look for vitamin D listed on the ingredients list and nutrition information panel.
  5. Like our skin mushrooms produce vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. Putting your mushrooms in the sun for 15 minutes before you cook them can drastically increase their vitamin D content. Check out these delicious mushroom recipes.

If you’re in a group prone to vitamin D deficiency, or concerned about your vitamin D levels, speak with your GP about having your vitamin D levels tested. Too much vitamin can be dangerous for your health so always speak to your GP or an Accredited Practising Dietitian before taking a vitamin D supplement.

For Cancer Council Sun Smart App information regarding UV radiation head here https://www.sunsmart.com.au/resources/sunsmart-app

Your Personal Healthy Eating Quiz

What you eat or don’t eat affects how you look, feel and perform. Take our short quiz to find out what foods you could introduce to help you be your best.

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What is healthy eating?

Eating healthy is making sure you enjoy a wide variety of foods from each of the five major food groups daily, in the amounts recommended. The five major food groups as recommended by the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating are:

  1. vegetables and legumes/bean
  2. fruit
  3. lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, legumes/beans
  4. grain (cereal) foods, mostly wholegrain and/or high cereal fibre varieties
  5. milk, yoghurt, cheese and/or alternatives, mostly reduced fat.

Foods are grouped together because they provide similar amounts of key nutrients and eating a variety of foods from the list above helps to promote good health and reduce the risk of disease.

How do I improve my diet?

If you want to improve your diet you have come to the right place. By completing the Healthy Eating Quiz you’ll receive instant personalised feedback and a report on your diet quality to highlight any areas where you can improve your overall eating habits. Your score is based on the frequency and variety of the foods consumed from the five major food groups mentioned above. No Money No Time can help you improve your score by providing tips, goals and suggestions. On top of this we will provide quick, cheap and healthy recipes as well as credible answers to diet hacks, myths and FAQ’s.

Is my diet healthy?

Dietary habits are different between people. Some people choose to follow a particular diet (i.e., Keto diet or vegan diet) while some have to make changes due to certain food restrictions or health conditions. If you want to know if what you usually eat is healthy, then do the Healthy Eating Quiz today to give you the answers in less than 10 minutes.

Why is healthy eating important?

Your HEQ score and personalised feedback report is based on the frequency and variety of healthy core foods you usually eat. This is important because no single food contains all the nutrients we need to stay healthy. Some foods are higher in nutrients than others and people who have a lot of variety in the foods they eat are more likely to be healthy and to stay healthy. In other words, if you can eat a large variety of vegetables as opposed to only 2-3 types of vegetables, the benefits are much greater. This type of diet also helps you to feel better, think better and perform better during your usual daily activities.

Take the Healthy Eating Quiz