Alternate sources of vitamin D.
There's a whole host of them that we can be including
in our diet almost daily.
We are beating up the winter blues
with our dear friend, Dr. Michael Breus.
It's so great to have him back.
And he seems so excited.
He's in the kitchen now,
and he's gonna show us how to get a big dose of vitamin D,
which we normally get outside, absorbing it from the sun,
but in the winter, wee wah, not so much of that.
So now we're gonna, just walk us through it.
The show is yours, Dr. Breus.
Just go for it.
So, when we're looking for other sources
or alternate sources of vitamin D,
there's a whole host of them that we can be including
in our diet, almost daily, as a matter of fact.
One of the biggies, salmon.
Fatty fishes that are loaded with omegas
are super-rich in vitamin D.
This is one of my favorite ways to get vitamin D.
I love salmon anyway.
It's such an amazing fish, and I love the wild-caught ones,
like those are the best.
My mom too.
I was just gonna say, my mom only eats wild-caught salmon,
but she loves it.
I know.
Well, I mean, you got the whole Alaska tradition.
I mean, the greatest salmon
in parts of the world comes from Alaska,
so truly amazing.
Talking about salmon and fish,
of course, we've got fish oil, right?
And so, you know, for some people
who may or may not be a big salmon or a big fish person,
you know, fish oil can actually be something
that can be incredibly helpful
in terms of generating vitamin D.
And you don't just have to take it in a liquid form.
Believe it or not, you can actually get it
in pill forms and things like that.
They add it to a lot of vitamins too.
I buy my mom chewable vitamins
that have a heavy dose of omegas built into it
'cause she doesn't like to swallow big pills.
She's 86, she's, you know, a small-framed person.
So, they make many daily vitamins
that have that as well, correct?
Correct, and one of the things
I talk about with people all the time
is making sure, that especially right now during COVID,
that you're really loading up on the vitamin D.
Wow. To be clear,
that doesn't mean that if you have a vitamin D deficiency,
you're gonna die of COVID, but it was a correlation.
And so, I've told all of my patients,
increase the vitamin D for sure.
There's a couple other sources, of course.
Egg yolks is another biggie, right?
So for people out there, people used to only eat egg whites.
Carbonara, my husband.
Right, carbonara, exactly.
Exactly, my Italian friend, of course.
She makes a dynamite carbonara, by the way.
And then orange juice.
You know, many of our orange juices
are fortified now with vitamin D.
Vitamin D? And so having orange.
That's right, they're fortified with it
and can be very good.
For folks who, maybe this isn't all part of your diet,
then there's supplements, right?
So I personally take vitamin D every single morning.
I take 5,000 international units.
And it's really good for you.
It's hard to have too much vitamin D.
Of course, you wanna talk with your doctor
if you're going over 5,000 international units
just to make sure that your body
is one that can absorb it and handle it.
Other ways to get vitamin D, of course,
if you can, get outside and do some exercise, right?
I mean, I'm not saying you have to run a marathon,
but, you know, go for a walk.
Be in the sun.
Get in the sun.
Rachel knows, I'm a big dog person.
She's a huge dog person.
So every single morning I take my buddy, Hugo
out for a 20-minute walk and that's our time, right?
There's a lot of reasons why that's good.
Number one, getting that sunshine resets my circadian clock,
which is very helpful for the winter blues and SAD.
Number two, fresh air, okay?
Like we all need it.
Our homes, we're stuck in our homes.
I'm telling people now to walk around their house
and open up the windows,
and then walk around the house and close the windows
just to get some.
Even when it's minus, you know, below zero outside.
Exactly.
Get some fresh air in there.
Also remember, the cooler it is, the easier it is to sleep.
So don't forget about that.
And then again, if you can get outside
and move around a little bit,
you're really going to be able to feel
the lack of SAD and the lack of the winter blues
because you're gonna be breathing fresh air,
moving around, getting that sunlight,
and getting that vitamin D.
And it gives you those natural endorphins.
Like you just get into a better mental place if you move.
It's just the way it is, period.
There's no question about it.
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