Got vitamin D?

For all children, a lack of vitamin D is associated with increased lifetime risk for developing illnesses including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and rickets (the failure of bones to mineralize and thus harden). The good news is that humans need only tiny amounts of micronutrients to thrive.

“The majority of the necessary vitamin D comes from exposure to sunlight,” says Cole. “Dietary intake alone is unlikely to provide the daily recommended amount of vitamin D needed to prevent deficiency. However, micronutrient deficiencies are not something you see immediately. If you don’t test for it, you don’t know there’s a deficiency until it’s overt.”

By the time the signs of a deficiency become obvious, damage has already been done, and some of this damage is irreversible. That is, brain growth and neural development have been compromised, and so has the immune system. “If children are chronically impaired, even if the deficit is reversed, that doesn’t correct all of the issues,” says Cole.

Because so little vitamin D is needed, deficiencies can be avoided early on by combining diet choices with safe exposure to the sun.

Robin Tricoles