Sunshine as my Vit D source

stillwater21

I am 2 weeks into changing to a plant based diet. I am reaching my targets easily for everything except Vit D, which I get from spending plenty of time in the sun (I live in Costa Rica so it is easy to get). The question is I cannot find a way to enter that into my diary. Is there a way to do it, or should I just ignore it knowing I am getting more than enough sun time?

Susan_RD_101

@stillwater21

The amount of vitamin D made from the sun is dependent on many factors:

• skin pigmentation
• sunscreen/clothing coverage
• where you live relative to the equator
• time of year/day
• cloud coverage
• etc.

Given all of this, it's very difficult to determine the daily amounts you would make, given this would change!

Kind regards,

stillwater21

Yes. I see your point of course. Here at 10 degrees north latitude, I tend to let my medium tan caucasian skin soak up my daily dose for about one hour in the early morning between 6 and 7 am, as it emerges above the tree line into the usually cloudless sky, and I am sitting on my porch in a sleeveless t-shirt sipping my morning coffee and watching the birds foraging. I might get a bit more later, when I ride my bike the 4km to town for groceries in shorts and a t-shirt. No way to tell for sure, so best if I just ignore trying to enter a value and hope for the best.

Susan_RD_101

@stillwater21

Given that I'm buried under snow, that sounds incredible! You could get your vitamin D levels checked once a year to ensure that your daily exposure is adequate. This is what I ask my clients to do in Canada.

stillwater21

thanks.

Donovan

There's good reason why vitamin D is called “the sunshine vitamin.” When your skin is exposed to sunlight, it makes vitamin D from cholesterol. The sun's ultraviolet B (UVB) rays hit cholesterol in the skin cells, providing the energy for vitamin D synthesis to occur [mcdvoice]

Sooz

Posted a query about Vit D3 but found a solution - but don't know how to delete a comment!