Vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins for the body, as it helps to keep your bones, teeth and muscles healthy, according to the NHS. If you develop a vitamin D deficiency, you may struggle to regulate the amount of calcium or phosphate in the body. A severe lack of the vitamin may even lead to some unwanted complications, including bone deformities, rickets, or osteomalacia. But you could lower your risk of deficiency symptoms by regularly eating eggs, it’s been revealed.
Boiled eggs provide small amounts of vitamin D in their yolk, and could help to protect against a deficiency, revealed GP Dr Sarah Jarvis.
But because it comes in such small quantities, you’d have to eat six eggs every day to make sure you get enough vitamin D from your diet.
You could also get more vitamin D by eating oily fish, steak, or bowls of fortified cereals.
“The most natural way to get vitamin D is to expose your bare skin to sunlight [ultraviolet B rays],” Jarvis told Express.co.uk.
“You can get small amounts of vitamin D from food including oily fish, red meat, egg yolks, fortified drinks, cereals and milk.
“However, you would need to eat one of the following servings every day to get enough vitamin D from your diet alone.
“Six boiled eggs, one portion of oily fish, 10+ tins of tuna, 7+ bowls of cereal fortified in vitamin D, 10 rump steaks, 10+ lamb’s liver, or 13+ lumps of reduced fat spread.”
Instead, you should try to spend more time in direct sunlight to top up on vitamin D, she said.
Have your face and upper extremities exposed between 11am and 3pm, from April to September in the UK, to make vitamin D in the body.
“You don’t need to tan or burn your skin to get vitamin D,” added Jarvis. “You only need to expose your skin for around half the time it takes for your skin to begin to burn.”
The amount of vitamin D you make from sunlight depends on the time of day, and where you live in the world, she said.
But during the autumn and winter months, it can be difficult to make enough vitamin D from sunlight.
It’s therefore recommended that everyone takes a 10mcg supplement of vitamin D to avoid a deficiency.
Common vitamin D deficiency symptoms include bone or back pain, feeling constantly tired, and frequently getting ill.
Other warning signs include hair loss, muscle pain, and having cuts or wounds that take longer to heal than normal.
