Wedding Day With A Dose Of Vitamin D

HEALTH

WITH A DOSE OF VITAMIN D

BY TARA WIND AND SHAY ERNEST

In addition to looking and feeling their best, this year gives brides-to-be another goal leading up to their wedding: boosting their immune systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhaustion and added stress, inherent in wedding planning, already weakens the immune system, then add in the stress of the pandemic. Recent research has shown that adequate vitamin D levels can protect against COVID-19 by regulating a healthy inflammatory response and boosting immune cell production.

Vitamin D is nicknamed the “sunshine vitamin” because our bodies can produce it when our skin is exposed to sunlight. Deficiency risk is higher during the winter months as a result of being indoors more and bundling up to stay warm. Therefore, getting vitamin D from your diet becomes even more important. Fortified foods such as breakfast cereal, orange juice, milk (including soy milks and alternatives) and mushrooms exposed to UV light provide most of the Vitamin D in American diets. We can also get vitamin D from non-fortified foods like oily fish (trout, salmon, tuna, mackerel), egg yolks, and beef.

Although we can get vitamin D from both food and the sun, nearly one third of the U.S. population is still at risk for having a deficiency. To get enough on a daily basis, try to include foods containing vitamin D at meals and snacks. Start your day with a fortified breakfast cereal with milk or yogurt and a small glass of orange juice. Have hard-boiled eggs as a snack. For dinner, try the recipe for delicious salmon cakes. If you think you are deficient, talk to your doctor and get your vitamin D levels tested. Sometimes vitamin D supplements are required, in addition to sunlight and incorporating foods containing vitamin D in your well-balanced diet.

(1) Looker AC, Johnson CL, Lacher DA, et al. Vitamin D status: United States 2001–2006. NCHS data brief, no 59. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2011. (2) https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/ treatments-for-covid-19#:~:text=There%20is%20some%20 evidence%20to,with%20COVID-19

Tara Wind, MS, RD, LDN is the dietetic internship director at East Carolina University. She did her undergraduate program at UNC-Chapel Hill and graduate work at Meredith College. She has been a registered dietitian for over 20 years, with the last six involved with interns.

Shay Ernest graduated from East Carolina University with a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and dietetics. She is a dietetic intern completing her clinical rotations at UNC Lenoir Health Care in Kinston. Her goal after the internship is to become a registered dietitian where she hopes to help patients understand the connection between food and health.

22 Her — February 2021 www.reflector.com/her