FoOdS In ViTaMiN D

Vitamin D

What can high-vitamin D foods do for you?

• Help prevent a growing list of chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, osteoporisis, breast cancer, colon cancer, and ovarian cancer
• Help keep your bones and teeth strong and healthy
• Regulate the growth and activity of your cells
• Reduce inflammation

What events can indicate a need for more foods rich in vitamin D?

• Bone pain and/or soft bones
• Frequent bone fractures
• Bone deformities or growth retardation in children
• Lack of exposure to sunlight for any reason, including geography, use of sunscreen, or wearing of protective clothing

Concentrated food sources of vitamin D include salmon, sardines, shrimp, milk, cod, and eggs.

Sockeye salmon are an exceptionally rich source of vitamin D: a 4-ounce serving of baked or broiled sockeye salmon provides 739.37 IU of vitamin D. The same 4-ounce serving of chinook salmon, another excellent source of vitamin D, supplies 411 IU.

Why are sockeye salmon even more richly endowed with vitamin D than other salmon species? Because zooplankton constitute so much of their diet, and zooplankton-along with phytoplankton-are the key sources of vitamin D in the marine food chain. The zooplankton eaten by salmon are tiny marine animals, such as larval-stage crustaceans, while the phytoplankton eaten by salmon are small, plant-like marine organisms.

Both types of minuscule sea life create lots of vitamin D from sunlight, and zooplankton feed on phytoplankton, building up their vitamin D content to even higher levels.

Unlike most other fish and salmon species (except chum), sockeye feed largely on zooplankton through all stages of life. Chinook, on the other hand, feast on insects and sideswimmers when young, then consume a variety of fish, especially smelt and ciscoes, a type of lake herring, as they mature.