We can improve our lifestyle, our eating and our health enjoying vitamin D milk. This drink can provide us an extra boost in our daily routine, aid us in the absorption of calcium and much more.
We will take a quick overview of what vitamin D milk is, its effects on the human body and why it can be very good for you.
What is vitamin D milk?
Vitamin D milk is milk that has been fortified, with additional vitamin D added to it. Regular, unfortified milk also contains a bit of vitamin D (whole milk containing more of it than reduced-fat milk products), however, these unfortified products contain barely a small proportion of the recommended daily allowance.
The extra vitamin D is a voluntary addition, done with the objective of helping people consume this elusive vitamin more easily because only very few foods naturally contain it.
Therefore, vitamin D milk is highly recommended in order to assure you consume your daily minimum vitamin D dose.
How can I tell if the milk I’m buying is vitamin D milk?
In order to make sure you’re buying vitamin D milk, you should check the ingredient label. Sometimes, it can be labeled as Vitamin D Palmitate.
In some countries like the United States, legal measures assure that the type of milk is identified in the label: FDA regulations state that if the milk is fortified, the label must declare that vitamin D was added. Do you know about golden milk?
What is vitamin D and what is it good for?
Vitamin D stands out from the rest of the vitamins because its only way of “consumption” is not via food, but rather, it can also be synthesized by the skin when exposed to sunlight.
It is a fat-soluble vitamin, which is the technical way of saying that your body can store it in the liver and fat cells.
This vitamin also helps in neuromuscular function, supports the immune system in its functioning and most importantly, it aids in the optimization of calcium absorption in the intestine.
The deficiency of vitamin D negatively affects the strength of your bones, causing conditions known as rickets in children and also osteomalacia and osteoporosis in adults.
In recent, modern times, vitamin D deficit has become a more serious issue because people spending more time indoors.
Particularly in Northern cities, where there are lower sunlight levels and a high ratio of smog pollution, issues like rickets and osteomalacia rose significantly.
Another modern contribution to less vitamin D absorption is sunblock: using sunblock when you outside prevent vitamin D synthesis from the sun.
However, this is by no means a reason to stop using sunblock, which protects you from the sun’s UV rays and dangerous side effects that such exposure could bring, like skin cancer.
The solution to consuming a healthy dose of vitamin D can be simple adjustments in your lifestyle, and this is where vitamin D milk steps in, as a beneficial option to your health.
What are the most common sources of vitamin D?
We have already mentioned sunlight as a source of the elusive vitamin D.
However, in which foods can we find it? Good examples are milk (especially vitamin D milk), salmon, tuna, swordfish, sardines, egg yolk, and beef liver, because, as we mentioned, vitamin D can be contained in the liver.
As you can see, this vitamin is naturally present in very few foods, so the options for its consumption are limited.
This is another reason why vitamin D milk can be so good for you. It is an easy way to make sure you consume your healthy dosage of the vitamin.
For example, milk is categorized as the top food source of vitamin D in the American diet.
United States’ citizens get 42,6% of thei9r vitamin D from milk, according to NHANES, the National Health and Nutrition Survey, a research study that analyzes nutrition data.
What is fortification (in food)?
Vitamin D milk is a fortified product, but, what exactly is a fortification in food? Well, it’s quite simple. Fortification is a process in which you add nutrients to food.
For example, some milk producers fortify milk by adding an oily mixture of vitamins D and A to liquid mil before homogenizing (mixing) it and pasteurizing it, which is a process of heating the milk in order to destroy any harmful bacteria. This is one way of obtaining fortified milk.
What benefits can vitamin D offer you?
We have already detailed what vitamin D is and what it is good for, but here we will go into further detail so that you can remember all the benefits you’ll be receiving when you pick up a carton of vitamin D milk at the supermarket.
Vitamin D not only helps the absorption of calcium but also aids in building and maintaining strong bones.
Also, as you must already know if you have read earlier paragraphs, it helps avoid ailments like rickets in children, osteomalacia and even osteoporosis in adults.
This vitamin is also beneficial to the muscles, aiding their movement and to the nerves, for it helps them carry messages between the brain and the body.
There is also growing evidence that supports that vitamin D may help in reducing the risks of high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even cancer.
How’s that as a motivation to include vitamin D milk in your diet?
Can vitamin D be harmful to your overall health?
It is common wisdom that underconsumption and overconsumption can both be very unhealthy for our bodies.
That is why we try to establish a balance in our nutritious intake: consuming too much of something will do you as much harm as consuming too little of something.
This also applies to vitamin D and therefore, it also applies to vitamin D milk.
That’s why it’s also good to be aware that too much vitamin D consumption can cause toxicity.
Some of the symptoms that could be seen in these cases are weight loss, appetite loss, excessive urination, and heart arrhythmias.
Also, since vitamin D aids in calcium absorption, excessively high levels of the vitamin in your body could cause your blood calcium levels to rise too high, as well.
However, rest easy knowing that vitamin D overdose will never occur because of sunlight exposure; the only possible cause for this overdose is synthetic vitamin preparations.
Very heavy milk drinkers, theoretically, could possibly exceed the healthy dose of vitamin D, but it would be very, very difficult to do so via consumption of fortified milk alone.
So that is good news for vitamin D milk! Because unless you drank excessively large amounts of vitamin D milk, it is extremely unlikely for any negative effects to affect you.
In conclusion, vitamin D milk is an extremely easy way to amp up your daily consumption of vitamin D and to receive its numerous benefits, which range from better calcium absorption and to aiding muscle movement to reduce the risks of high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even cancer.
Vitamin D milk can be one of those simple solutions that help make your daily routine and your eating habits much better than you ever thought possible. Also, check out the benefits of Almond milk.
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