Sunshine! Your Winter Survival Without It!

My first guest post from Deb Lowther a mother of 3 young daughters who, when not running after the kids, is running in the trails! She blogs about Raising Healthy Kids and ensures her own have fun while eating healthy & staying active.  You can visit her websites to learn more www.iron-kids.com & www.adultgummies.com

Perfect blue skies like this are hard to come by in the winter months; usually we are facing dull grey cloudy days and we are wishing for a little sunshine and a boost of energy! Without a private jet to whisk you away to a tropical destination, what is a family to do?

Eating more vitamin packed fresh fruits and vegetables when its dull outside will make you feel healthier on the inside and finding a good B Vitamin will help your body use the carbohydrates and proteins you eat to produce energy and give you that boost you need. The key factor though, is making sure you are getting a daily dose of Vitamin D, and not just when sunshine is scarce in the winter, but all year long. Vitamin D works with your calcium stores to keep your bones strong and is also responsible for keeping your immune system healthy!

Sunshine not only lifts our spirits , it’s ultraviolet rays fuel our bodies with Vitamin D. The importance of maintaining healthy levels of Vitamin D all year round is becoming more and more clear. Try as we might to soak up those rays when the sun does shine in the winter, new research says we still aren’t getting enough sunlight exposure to keep our families at their healthiest, even as Winter turns into Spring!

Vitamin D: The Sunshine Vitamin

Vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin because our bodies naturally synthesize it when our skin is exposed to sunlight. Recent studies have shown even with the Vitamin D in our diets and exposure to direct sunlight, the majority of the population is Vitamin D deficient.

We know vitamin D works with the calcium stores in your body to maintain healthy bones and teeth, but we now know it also plays an important role in maintaining good immune function and preventing disease. A healthy immune system helps to fight off the viruses and bacteria that commonly affect families. Maintaining Vitamin D levels also has long-term impact. In fact, it helps prevent numerous ailments such as osteoporosis, depression, cardiovascular disease and new research shows Vitamin D may be effective for helping to reduce the risk of certain cancers (by almost 60 percent).

Think about how much Vitamin D you are getting naturally, from direct exposure to sunlight. What do you make sure your family does before heading out into the sun for long periods of time? Put on sunscreen. Anything over an SPF 8 is believed to block the absorption of the suns ultraviolet rays you need to synthesize vitamin D!

We cover up our children, put on hats, seek the shade as we have been told for years that the suns rays can be damaging to our skin! Little did we know that we were also depriving ourselves of an important vitamin! Think you are catching some rays while driving or sitting in your sunny living room? Think again, the suns Vitamin D producing rays cannot penetrate glass, clothing or sunscreen.

So as winter fads into spring, have fun and get outside, an yes, cover up, protect your skin from the UV rays and make sure you and your children are still getting the minimum daily dose of 600IU’s of Vitamin D as recommended by Health Canada. Try to eat food rich in Vitamin D like fatty fish and fortified dairy products, and keep that bottle of sunshine shaped Vitamin D Gummies on hand all year long!

Vitamin D is your family’s year round sunshine in a bottle vitamin!