Getting enough vitamin d on a whole foods vegan diet

imc2111

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I'm currently a bit Vitamin D deficient after some time of switching to a whole foods vegan diet.

I was wondering what are some of the best ways to get enough Vitamin D that do not include too much sun exposure (I have a skin condition that makes this difficult) using a whole food vegan diet. With this type of diet (very low fat), even if I supplement, I'm not sure if it would work, since Vit D is fat soluble.
 
Supplementing works. The fact that it's fat-soluble just means it gets stored in your fat cells. I use this:
https://store.veganessentials.com/vegan-vitamin-d3-capsules-by-global-health-trax-p3609.aspx
or this:
https://store.veganessentials.com/vegan-vitamin-d3-capsules-by-the-food-movement-p3730.aspx
depending on availability. I take 5000 I.U. every other day, but you could take 5000 I.U. a day until your numbers become normal. (You can overdose on vitamin D. When you take too much, it builds up in your body over time, to the point where it becomes toxic. So don't overdo it. Dr. Greger recommends 2000 I.U. per day. Since it gets stored in your fat cells, you could, for example, take 14,000 I.U. once a week, and it would amount to the same thing.)

According to this article:
https://examine.com/nutrition/how-much-fat-do-i-need-to-absorb-vitamind/
taking a vitamin D supplement with no fat can reduce its absorption somewhat, but so can taking it with too much fat. So I wouldn't overthink this. Just take the supplements, monitoring your blood level to see if it's going up accordingly.

Incidentally, a vegan diet is not necessarily "very low fat". In fact, you would have to work hard to make it low-fat. Note that vegetable oils (e.g., olive oil, canola oil) don't come from animals. Furthermore, even vegetables and fruits, not to mention nuts and seeds, have some fat content. So even if you avoided all cooking oils, you would still be ingesting some fat -- which is a good thing, since your body needs it.

If you absolutely want to make sure you're taking your vitamin D supplements with fat, I suppose you could eat a handful of walnuts or some avocado beforehand. Dr. Greger just recommends taking it with the largest meal of the day:
https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/vitamin-d-supplements/
 
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Thank you! That's some great info. I'll begin supplementing with Vit D soon.
 
I'm currently a bit Vitamin D deficient after some time of switching to a whole foods vegan diet.

I was wondering what are some of the best ways to get enough Vitamin D that do not include too much sun exposure (I have a skin condition that makes this difficult) using a whole food vegan diet. With this type of diet (very low fat), even if I supplement, I'm not sure if it would work, since Vit D is fat soluble.

i thought vit D was from sunlight somehow, rather than diet (??)

i take an occassional vit supplement that has D in it. I think it helps with fatigue in the winter, but i may just be imagining it.
 
I take a vegan friendly vitamin D supplement, myself. There is a lot of information out there on vitamin D to confuse most people. I've been trusting Dr. Michael Greger' NutritionFacts.Org site for a lot of good information about plant-based living. He most often will provide the links to the science and research to back it up, which I like.

I did a search of his Youtube channel here for "vitamin D" and this is what I found.
I hope this helps: https://www.youtube.com/user/NutritionFactsOrg/search?query=Vitamin+D
 
i thought vit D was from sunlight somehow, rather than diet (??)

Your body makes vitamin D when you expose your skin to sunlight, but most people these days don't spend enough time in the sun to meet our vitamin-D needs. Hence the need to supplement.