Vitamin D is essential for the smooth functioning of our body. It helps in calcium absorption, boosts the immunity and also keeps depression and mental health problems at bay.
Natural food sources of vitamin D are limited, especially if you’re vegetarian or don’t like seafood. Excluding fortified foods, mushrooms are the only plant source of vitamin D.
But the good news is, our body creates this Vitamin when exposed to sunlight.
Nowadays, many of us spend a lot of time indoors for work and when we are outdoors, we use sunscreens or other skin care products. Further, smog and pollution in cities can also hamper the absorption of sun rays. And as a result, many of us are vitamin D deficient.
The natural way to get vitamin D is exposing our bodies to the direct sunlight for 15 to 20 mins in a day, 4-5 days a week. It’s recommended to expose our bodies-minimally covered-to sunlight without wearing sunscreen, till we feel that the skin is lightly heated up. The duration of time required to feel it varies based on what time of the day it is and also on the intensity of sunlight.
Early morning or late afternoon is a better time to sunbath as harmful UV rays are absorbed by the atmosphere before sunlight reaches the earth.
But if taking sunbath every day is not possible, then we can take the Vitamin D supplements as per doctors prescription for the suggested duration. But taking vitamin D supplements in excess dosage can cause hypervitaminosis D which can be hazardous to health.