(upbeat music)
- One thing about Fox 8 News in the morning.
We all know that vitamin D is important in our diets.
There is no doubt about that!
It's very important in our diets.
- So, with me now is dietician Lindsay Bailey
from Akron Children's Hospital.
She is here to talk about the benefits of vitamin D
and guidelines that we need to follow.
First of all, thank you very much for stopping by.
- Thank you.
- It's always good to see you. - Yes, thank you.
- Now, when I go to the doctor, he's usually tells me
that, you know, you got to have more vitamin D.
- Yes.
- First of all, why is it so important?
- Yeah.
So, I think the easy answer for that
is strong bones, strong teeth. - Okay.
- That's the biggie.
So, here in, especially, Cleveland and northeast Ohio.
The majority of people don't get, one, a lot of sunlight
and sunlight is needed to make vitamin D.
And, then two, a lot of people aren't getting
the recommended amount of vitamin D from their diets.
- Hmm.
- So, it's just something that we see.
It's pretty prevalent that not a lot of people
are meeting their needs and they are at a higher
risk for deficiency.
- So, what's the recommended amount?
- So, it depends on your age and your condition.
So, for healthy individuals, we're looking
at about 600 international units in a day.
- Okay, okay. - Yep.
- All right, now you have some items here
that will help boost your vitamin D.
- Yep. - You're looking at the as.
Right there, that's the recommended amount.
- Yes. - Obviously.
Okay, so talk about some of the things
that you brought today.
- So, take a look at this first section here.
This is what would be required in a full 24 hour period
to meet your recommended vitamin D intake.
- Okay.
- So, this is a lot.
- That is a lot.
- Right?
- So, you gotta do all of this in 24 hours,
if you don't want to take any vitamins?
- Yes.
So, this is 600 international units of vitamin D
in a day.
So, in order to get that, we're looking
at fortified cereal, two yogurts, two slices of cheese,
a whole egg, and two milk.
So, I have two examples.
I have a soy milk.
And, then, I also have a dairy milk too.
- Okay.
- But, this is all that is needed in a full day.
- But, any kind of milk is good for vitamin D?
- Yeah, yep. - Okay.
- We're gonna talk about that too.
- All right, let's talk about it.
So, I think what's interesting
is a lot of people don't realize that
there aren't very many foods that naturally
contain vitamin D.
- Okay.
- But, here are some examples here.
Salmon is a very good source and any fatty type of fish.
- Okay.
- Naturally contains vitamin D.
- Okay.
- Mushrooms are really interested too.
So if, a lot of times, you can get mushrooms
that are treated with UV Light, and it produces vitamin D.
- Oh, there you go.
- You can see that on packaging sometimes too.
- Okay.
- And, specifically, whoops, the yolk of eggs contains.
- A yolk of an egg? - Yeah.
So, you want to eat the whole egg, not just egg whites.
You get great vitamin D. - (Wayne laughs)
- Some people do that. They separate the eggs.
But, the yolk is important.
- (Wayne laughs) Sounds good, okay.
- But, for most people in the American diet,
they're getting most of their vitamin D
from what is called fortified foods.
- Okay.
- They're adding the vitamin D to the foods.
- Okay.
- So, these are some of the bigger sources of added,
or fortified vitamin D's in foods.
- Okay. So, we're talking what?
- Milk, cow's milk, yogurt,
many cereals, and cheeses.
- Um.
- But, during my purchasing, I wanted to note.
Don't just assume because you're eating yogurt,
it has vitamin D.
Or you're eating cheese, it has vitamin D.
- Why can't you just assume. Why not?
- Right. So, I was double-checking a lot of labels.
Some yogurts and some cheeses
- don't have vitamin D added to them.
- Wow, that's crazy.
So, I know. I was actually surprised, myself.
So, the examples I brought here do have vitamin D.
But, double-check your labels because of that.
- So, the key is you got to check out the labels.
- You do.
- See what you're doing.
- Yeah.
- And, who does that?
I mean, I need to do that more.
- Yeah. You know what?
That's a really good topic.
I'm glad that it is the year 2020 now
because there's big labeling changes happening.
- Well, let's talk about it.
- Yeah.
So, if you take a look at this label here,
there's a lot of things that are changing in 2020.
But, one of the big things is
they are required to add vitamin D to the label.
- Hmm.
It wasn't it before?
- No.
So, actually, if you took a look at this cow's milk
that I brought here. - Yeah.
- Vitamin D is listed on here. - It is listed.
- But, it wasn't required before 2020.
- Wow.
- So now, rolling out in this year.
- Can I ask you a question? - and the next year. Yeah.
- It says 10 percent DV. Daily what?
- Daily value.
- Got it.
- So, that means, if you were doing the serving size,
which is one cup.
One cup of milk contains about 10 percent of your need
for the day. - All right.
Let's move down. - Yeah.
- You have more stuff for us.
- I do.
So, a common complaint is, you know,
I have lactose intolerance,
or I have different dietary needs.
I'm vegetarian or vegan. - (Wayne agrees)
I can't do cow's milk.
What do I do? - Okay.
- So, there's a solution.
Lactaid is a milk that has the lactose broken down.
- Okay.
- So, people can tolerate that.
And, then, there's a lot of plant-based milks
that are fortified with vitamin D.
So, some options here that I brought.
There soy milk,
there's different nut milks, lactose-free milks,
like I mention.
So, these actually tend to have more vitamin D
fortified (Wayne agrees) than milk.
- And, they're great.
- And, if all else fails, there's the vitamin D supplement.
- Yeah.
So, again, I usually recommend talk to your doctor.
Talk to your dietician.
Don't just start on a supplement.
- (Wayne agrees)
- Because it's a good idea to get some lab work done
and make sure you truly are deficient.
- Yeah, and that's what my doctor told me.
- Yeah. Yeah.
Why do you bring the glasses over?
- Any guesses?
- I have no idea.
Well, because you should get out in the sun. Right?
- (Lindsay laughs) Yeah.
- That's the key.
Be out in the sun to get the natural vitamin B.
- Yeah. Vitamin D, I should say.
So, vitamin D is made by the sunlight.
And, again, I mentioned
we're not really having too much of that here.
- Yeah.
- But, if you're wearing sunscreen, it might be kind of
inhibiting some of your vitamin D.
So, the goal is to try to get about, like, 15 to 20 minutes
two to three times a week of some sunlight
to make that vitamin D that we need.
- Great job.
- Thank you!
- You got through this thing (text chimes) excellent.
Good information for us this morning.
- Awesome. Happy to hear. - Preciate you.