.SOMETIMES RAW.

Although I love cozy fall and winter evenings, I do reach a point where I eventually begin to feel a little deprived of some bright, warm sunlight, and rightly so, we need it! Vitamin D carries out some pretty big roles in our body. Today, I want to share why this vitamin is so integral to your health and why it can be extra important to supplement during the fall and winter. Especially now in this crazy pandemic which makes me wonder why nobody mentions supplements and healthy food choices to boost your immune system but to rather receive a 100 Euro gift certificate and a sausage if you get the vaccine? Just wondering…. but this is me.

What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. It actually acts more like a hormone in our body than a vitamin and has countless important roles because nearly every tissue type in our body has a vitamin D receptor. This means having adequate vitamin D levels is crucial for good health and the function of many different systems in our body.

Sunshine is what enables our body to manufacture Vitamin D. It is made from the cholesterol in our skin when we’re exposed to sunlight. Unfortunately, these upcoming months, we don’t get a whole ton of sun. Let’s explore what some good old vitamin D does for us!

Health benefits of Vitamin D

Bone Health

It’s well known that vitamin D is essential for bone health. One of its main roles is stimulating and controlling the absorption of calcium. It helps draw calcium into the bloodstream and increase its absorption from our intestines.

Vitamin D also works synergistically alongside magnesium and vitamin K2 for optimal bone health. Vitamin K delivers calcium from the bloodstream to bones and teeth and helps remove calcium deposits found in soft tissue.

Immune Health

The sunshine vitamin supports our immune system and actually helps activate the T cells in our body. These cells seek out and destroy different bacteria and viruses that can cause colds and flu. In fact, a study in 2010 found that vitamin D3 supplementation during winter may help reduce your chances of catching the flu.

Mental Health

Vitamin D helps to activate our “feel good” neurotransmitters, including serotonin and dopamine. This can be especially helpful for those who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) where a lack of sunlight has an adverse effect on mental health. It also helps maintain our nervous system and may help boost mood in those with depression.

Blood Sugar & Diabetes Management

Vitamin D can help support insulin levels and even diabetes management, including Type 1 and Type 2. According to research, 2000IU of vitamin D may help reduce the risk of Type 1 Diabetes. There was also a that study found low levels may increase risk of Type 2 Diabetes.

Cardiovascular Health

Vitamin D can even support your heart and reduce your risk of heart disease.

Cancer

There was a study that found participants’ cancer risk cut by 60% in those getting 1100IU per day, alongside calcium. How amazing is that?! Sufficient vitamin D levels in the body may also help reduce the risk of total rates of rates, including colorectal, prostate, and breast cancer

How to boost your Vitamin D Levels

Food & Lifestyle

Get sunshine on your skin (being nude outside in the sun is the best, obviously not now!) and enjoy dark coloured mushrooms, eggs, and fish like sardines, herring and mackerel, or a cod liver oil.

Those of you living in cooler climates with limited sun exposure during parts of the year usually need a bit of a boost. Many people can benefit greatly from supplementing with this sunshine vitamin during the fall and winter months.

Supplementation

There are two kinds of vitamin D you can take as a supplement: vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) and vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol).

D3 is derived from lanolin—the oil found in sheep’s wool—while D2 is a plant-based source. D2 is a popular choice amongst vegans and vegetarians, however if possible, I recommend opting for D3 as it’s easier for the body to absorb.

You can take vitamin D in a liquid, soft gel, or tablet form. Vitamin D is fat-soluble and is therefore better absorbed when taken as liquid or encapsulated in an oil, as opposed to a hard, chalky tablet. Vitamin D absorption is best when taken with food.

Dosages vary depending on individual needs, but a safe amount to start with is 1,000IU, although many people require much more than that. Be sure to speak with your health care practitioner for the appropriate dose. Below you see the Vitamin D3 I currently take. My personal dosage in the cold, dark fall and winter months is about 5-10 drops daily. Sometimes 15 drops a day for 3 days in a row if I my throat is achy or itchy. With this dosage I feel awesome, awake, and haven’t had the flu this season (knock on wood). My current Vitamin D Level is at 89% which is pretty good. Most people are deprived of Vitamin D and have Levels of 7-8 % or even below.

Are You Low in Vitamin D?

Low levels of vitamin D are more common than people would think. Dry skin, depression, osteoporosis, and conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer, can be signs of low deficiency. A lowered immune function—such as frequent colds or flu—can also be implicated in vitamin D deficiency. Be sure to get your levels checked if you are concerned.

Stay healthy and let me know if you have questions.

As a holistic nutritionist with a picky-eater son, I know how hard it can be to provide us with nutritious dinners that are also tasty, eco-conscious, cookbook-cover-worthy, and affordable. That is why I like to meal-plan and set myself up for success each week.

Disclaimer: Success varies greatly and typically manifests as a failure. I know you are wondering now: Are we supposed to just go about our everyday crazy lives and pretend that the collective trauma of a seemingly endless pandemic, the near-overthrow of our “democracy”, and irreversible damage to our climate isn’t real? Also, are there vegan, Keto, raw-food, or vegetarian options? Or, besides working full-time, I need more time and more healthy food options. This is how I meal-prep with a grain of sarcasm of course.

Grocery list: First things first. Is it safe to shop in person, or should I still get groceries delivered? What a great, unanswerable question! Luckily, all these meals can be made with basics from your pantry, unless, of course, your definition of “basics” is boxed wine, a pallet of family-sized hand sanitiser, and masks.

Monday: Start the week off strong with an easy, vegetarian three-bean chilli. All you’ll need is one pot, eight ingredients, thirty minutes, and a health insurance plan that at least partially covers cognitive-behavioural therapy. Eco-tip! Use reusable bowls, utensils, and straws, but somehow never wash them because that wastes water. It’s a real Catch-22, which is a book you know well since it was a mandatory read when you were in school.

Tuesday: Normally, Tuesday would be burger night, but there was an anti-mask rally outside the grocery store today, so you couldn’t pick up buns. Then, on the way home, you listened to a podcast about how the industrial meat industry is destroying the Amazon rain forest. Serve veggie burgers wrapped in lettuce, call the French fries “Pommes Frites,” and boom! You’ve got yourself a healthy, classy dinner. Fruit for dessert.

Wednesday: O.K., my son is still pretty mad about the whole fruit-for-dessert thing. No better way to rebound than with a tuna yoghurt sauce and zoodles (zucchini noodles). Tuna because it is high in mercury, and you can’t afford to damage your kids’ brains any more than constant exposure to screens already has. Reality: sub zoodles for real noodles, sub yoghurt for mayo, and then sub the whole thing for pizza.

Thursday: You know those videos in which perfectly manicured moms use the multicoloured batter to make fun cartoon-character pancakes for their delighted children? You don’t know how to do that. Sandwiches.

Friday: T.G.I.F.! Which in this house stands for “Thank God I (bought) Frozen dinners!” Did you know that you can eat frozen dinners for breakfast and lunch, too? It’s true! Plus, your kid(s) will get a decade’s supply of sodium. Chocolate and movie night.

Saturday: Pull out some cereal and sniff the milk. Since time is meaningless, it’s the breakfast-for-dinner night! This one requires almost zero prep, which gives you a few minutes to reflect on how the labour of creating a meal plan and doing all the budgeting, shopping, and cooking takes away from your ability to do other things, like staring at a wall. Hmm, that wall needs some fresh paint! Better just clean it while remembering the birthdays of every member of your immediate and extended family.

Sunday: Time to start planning for next week! Because the weeks never end! They just roll on, oblivious of our attempts at stackable food-storage solutions or our efforts to eat the whole rainbow every day. Yet we continue the strange performance of “planning,” as if playing a sonata on the deck of the Titanic can make people a bit more comfortable while the damn ship is sinking. A futile attempt at control as we slip through chaos into darkness and maybe, finally, into peace. Taco night! With lots of cheese.

The other day, I was putting my almost eight-year-old son to bed, when he turned to me and asked…

“When I grow up, will I have a chin?!

At first, I didn’t know what he was talking about, but then I realized that he knows many men with beards, so he thought his chin would disappear. I explained that he could have a beard or no beard, and either way, he would still have a chin.

I thought my work there was done and was about to head to the living room to read, but his follow-up question was…

“How did I get in your belly?”

Big questions, little man!

Back when I was seven and heard on the school bus about the shocking mechanics of baby-making, I hurried home to ask my mom, and I remember sitting in our cozy kitchen as she told us matter-of-factly how it all worked. And gave us books about this topic to read.

So, I looked around for a few books for Joel, and here’s what I found…

The Baby Tree. This is a beautiful, charming book about a little boy, whose parents reveal over breakfast that they’re expecting another baby. The boy wonders where the baby will come from, and proceeds to ask his babysitter, teacher, mail carrier, and grandpa. They all give him different answers, and when he finally asks his parents, they tell him directly and truthfully (and somewhat abstractly:). It’s really sweet, and I love that the final page of the book addresses more in-depth questions — about adoption, same-sex parents, etc.

Ages 4-8: It’s Not the Stork!
Ages 8-10: It’s So Amazing!
Ages 10 and up: It’s Perfectly Normal

These three books by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley are WONDERFUL. They talk about bodies, sex, birth, adoption, different types of families — and for teenagers, puberty, contraception, homosexuality, masturbation, you name it. The books are very open and accepting of kids’ questions and feelings while writing with a warm, direct tone.

Pamela Druckerman wrote a New York Times essay about the inspiring Dutch approach to teaching kids about sex:

Apparently, the Dutch are at the forefront of sex education, and they have little trouble broaching the topic. Parents in the Netherlands have lots of casual age-appropriate talks about sex with their kids, over many years, beginning when children are small.

“If we start with sexuality education when children are teenagers, or even just before they start with any interest in sexuality, I think you are too late,” says Sanderijn van der Doef, a psychologist…“As soon as children have questions, they have the interest, and then they have the right to get a correct answer.”

Dr. Van der Doef says parents should give simple, clear responses. If the child has more questions, he’ll ask. Once he’s 3 or 4, “You can start to explain, in a very simple way, that Mommy has a little egg in her belly, Daddy has very small sperms in his body, and when the sperms meet the egg, a baby grows in the belly of the mother.” Three-year-olds rarely ask how the sperm and egg meet. If they do, “then you have a very smart child at that age, and that means that child needs to have an answer,” she adds.

What about you? Have your little dudes asked about where babies come from? What did you tell them? How did your parents tell you? I’d love to hear… and no, I am not pregnant.