Nature Fitness, Ancestral Health & Vitamin D Exposure
vitamin d in natural health and fitness concepts
It's winter, so let's talk Vitamin D, or more specifically direct sunlight exposure for 20-30 minutes with no sun cream ideally on your legs, arms and/or chest - not just your face.
It's all about maximizing skin surface area in the sunshine, in other words and evolution (a.k.a ancestral health) gives us all the answers to why it is good for us.
(for more on evolution friendly lifestyle see this article of our journal)
Health Benefits of Vitamin D
The basics you need to know: sun exposure to UVB rays stimulates the body's creation of Vitamin D (it's actually a hormone, but let's not complicate things here).
Vitamin D boosts immune function and from an evolutionary biology perspective is simply too important to disregard.
ancestral health and sun cream?
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a good quality, toxic chemical-free sun cream on your face, neck and hands, but do double down on the rest of your body, giving yourself a short burst of protection free exposure prior to layering on your chosen cream.
To be clear, many lesser sun creams do contain chemicals and micro-plastics that we cannot recommend especially if you are on the beach, swimming in the sea, etc.
(for more on ancestral health body products see this article of our journal)
how much sun is enough for natural fitness benefits?
Dr Michael Holick, author of The Vitamin D Solution, recommends a safe sun time as around half what it would take your skin to go slightly pink due to sunburn. Pull right back from anything close to sunburn in other words.
Factors affecting Vitamin D production include altitude (think of how easy it is to burn when skiing in the mountains), pollution levels (polluter city centres will offer less Vit D exposure) and the reflectiveness of the ground around you (snow or seawater for example).
If sunshine exposure is not available to you for 6 months of the year, or more, then supplementation of a high quality Vitamin D with at least 2000 I.U. if not double that is a sensible step for those sunshine-free months. No need to supplement in summer.
To reiterate that, anything below 1000 I.U isn't going to make much impact so go for a high strength product.
sources of vitamin D for natural fitness benefits
Natural sources of Vitamin D to integrate into your diet include but are not limited to fish such as wild salmon and mackerel, as well as organic eggs.
Notice that there is no mention of cow's milk here, despite the massive lobbying campaign that took place in the 1980s around milk's supposedly unique nutritional qualities, it is actually not all that helpful from a nutritional standpoint, providing minimal levels of Vit D while causing massive damage to animals and the environment.
We can do better than that. Just step outside...