What would you think if someone told you that one nutrient could dramatically alter your health? That indeed that nutrient was necessary to prevent cancer, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis and many more conditions. Vitamin D, more a hormone than a vitamin, is necessary for the utilization of calcium and thus in the formation and repair of bones. How about if they told you that eating a low fat diet actually robs you of that very valuable nutrient? Well that is a reality that most of us are faced with on a daily basis and especially in the western world where processed food is the flavor of the decade.
Good fats from ethically raised animals such as raw milk, raw milk butter and raw milk cheeses, free range eggs etc. are great sources of Vitamin D as is, believe it or not the sun. In fact D3 is synthesized in the skin from sun exposure which in turn converts a type of cholesterol in the skin into vitamin D.
Vitamin D is important for the absorption of calcium and in fact, without vitamin D your body cannot absorb this essential nutrient. Nutrition can be a complex science if you try to break it down to individual nutrients and try to take each of these nutrients separately in pill form. We could easily become a nation of pill poppers leaving very little room remaining for good healthy foods. It is in our very foods where we can find the secret to optimal nutrition. However we can also find our nutritional demise there if we are not careful.
In order to become conscious consumers of high quality foods, we need to take a few steps back to an era when we had not yet succumbed to the media advertising blitz that convinced mothers that formula was better than breast milk and that pasteurization of dairy products was an important way to ensure us access to healthier foods. The debate over raw milk is a hot one and regulations, in addition to access to raw milk varies greatly from state to state. In order to find this valuable food, go to http://www.realmilk.com/where1.html. Also be sure to learn more about raw milk and its benefit from one of our recent radio show guests Mark McAfee at http://www.organicpastures.com/.
Having established that raw milk products are great sources of Vitamin D and its precursors and that this same nutrient is in no way bio-available from pasteurized dairy products, some might wonder where else we might find this important nutrient.
Many experts agree that Cod liver oil is a superior source of Vitamin D and many folks of certain generations will remember being fed this oil when they were children. Much research now recommends Krill oil over fish oil. Ultimately, however you get your vitamin D, it is just as important that you be able to absorb this vital nutrient. In order to absorb it you need to have a good functioning liver and kidneys since these organs are involved in transforming the natural form of vitamin D3, into its active hormonal form. Since fish oils and fatty saltwater fish are traditionally known to be the better sources off this nutrient and with our oceans being so badly polluted, it is advisable to eat smaller younger fish rather than older ones that so often retain heavy metals and chemical toxins into their tissues. One suggestion here is sardines, although since most of these are canned, you would be wise to seek out a source that is canned in BPA free cans. In order to keep our liver and kidneys in optimal working order I recommend taking a greens product daily, which will keep your liver and kidneys cleaner and help you detox some of these undesirable pollutants from your body. The product I recommend is called Enerfood and it is a totally organic source of many minerals and vitamins, in addition to its ability to keep your organs clean. In order to do a deeper cleanse, which I recommend once a season, I suggest doing a colon, liver and kidney cleanse. You can find the cleanses at http://www.enerhealthbotanicals.com/Cleanses-s/77.htm
Remember to get enough Vitamin D also by exposing your skin to the sun on a daily basis. Keep your exposure to between 15 and 30 minutes depending on your skin color. Lighter skinned people synthesize vitamin D more efficiently, while darker skinned folks need a little more time to synthesize this important nutrient. When your skin is exposed to the sun, the ultraviolet rays convert a form of cholesterol in the skin into a precursor to vitamin D. A precursor is something that goes on to make the nutrient itself. A short amount of skin exposure such as 20 minutes can bring you around 10 000 iu of Vitamin D. Expose as much op your skin as you can without shocking the neighbors or calling out the constables.
When we realize that higher vitamin D levels reduce mortality from all causes and that these levels improve all health complaints and enhance health, we understand why we need to get adequate vitamin D. Getting adequate sun exposure, drinking raw milk, eating fresh free range eggs, dandelion greens, alfalfa and horsetail, all of which are in the greens formula Enerfood and cleansing your liver and kidneys which process vitamin D, you will ensure that your health just gets better every day.
