Finding the Best Vitamin D Supplement

Want to avoid allergies and autoimmune diseases? Want to feel better and happier? I have one letter for you.

Research has been pouring in over the past several years about the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and increased risk of allergies and autoimmune diseases, among many other undesirable ailments. The most recent study was done in the UK, and one of the researches said, “Our study suggests a predisposition to autoimmune and allergic responses may be explained by a lack of vitamin D.”

How do you get enough vitamin D? I’ve done a fair amount of research into the best ways to get vitamin D, and I’ve found the very best vitamin D supplement. Read on!

I started learning about the advantages of vitamin D a few years ago, after my doctor recommended I take a vitamin D3 supplement. My research turned up so many benefits of this powerful vitamin, with new ones being discovered all the time.

A short list of benefits of includes: helps with bone formation and calcium absorption, helps fight disease, helps keep inflammation in check, and reduces the risk of developing all sorts of diseases, including depression, autoimmune diseases, cancer, high blood pressure, and heart disease. So it’s really good stuff for everyone, and it’s critical to me for managing the inflammation, depression, and many other aspects of my Rheumatoid Arthritis (an autoimmune disease of the joints).

While doing my research, I also discovered that the majority of people in the United States and most other places in the world have a vitamin D deficiency. When my doctor tested my vitamin D3 levels before recommending a supplement, I found out I was deficient.

I also researched whether I could get enough vitamin D without supplementing – I personally would rather take fewer supplements than more. I prefer to get nutrients from whole foods and natural sources rather than supplements or enriched foods. In this case, the only of major sources of vitamin D3 are sunlight and supplements. There are very few foods that provide vitamin D (egg yolks, liver, and wild-caught oily fish), and they don’t provide the amounts we need, if we eat them at all (many people don’t ever eat these foods).

So can we get enough vitamin D from sunlight? I personally believe this is the way our bodies were built to get vitamin D, our bodies making vitamin D3 from sunlight. However, most of us don’t get enough sunlight to get the amount of vitamin D we need (dependent on many factors here: how far away from the equator you live, what season it is where you live, how dark your skin tone is, and whether you go out in the sun at all or wear sunscreen, to name a few). And very many dermatologists and doctors recommend you not even attempt to get your vitamin D from the sun because there are so many variables involved and the risk of developing skin cancer is significant.

After reading as much as I could, I determined I do need a supplement to help me get a beneficial amount. If was a lifeguard at the beach, maybe not. But I work all day in an office. So, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I went on a search for the best vitamin D supplement I could find. My doctor recommended a good supplement, but because of my whole food leanings I researched and found an even better one. I chose Vital Choice vitamin D3 in Wild Salmon Oil because the vitamin D3 is suspended in wild sockeye salmon oil and encased in a fish-gelatin capsule.

Some vitamin D supplements come as hard pills. But vitamin D3 absorbs better when combined with fat (as you can imagine when you look at the list above of the foods that contain it naturally). Hard pills don’t have any fats with them, so that kind of vitamin D supplement likely won’t absorb as well. And salmon oil naturally contains the most vitamin D3 of any food, so there’s an added bonus of getting some of your vitamin D directly from a whole food source.

Most Vitamin D supplements that contain fats suspend their vitamin D3 in a vegetable or soy oil, which are Omega 6 fats (and the soy oil is from GMO soy unless it says otherwise). Omega 6 fats are pro-inflammatory and prevent your body’s use of beneficial Omega 3 fats. Also, many fat-based vitamin D supplements come in a wheat-based capsule, which is a problem for anyone who needs to avoid gluten.

All of Vital Choice’s products are tested for purity, so the salmon oil in this vitamin D supplement does not contain any mercury. That’s so important!

And one more thing about the wild salmon oil that suspends the vitamin D : it contains astaxanthin, which is one of the very best and most potent antioxidants there is. Astaxanthin gives salmon its orange color (well, not farmed salmon – that’s got orange dye added to it to trick you into buying it). If you hadn’t heard of this powerful antioxidant yet, you’re sure to hear more about it soon. It’s such a great antioxidant that it naturally preserves the vitamin D instead of needing to have a synthetic vitamin E added.

Last but not least of my reasons to love this brand’s supplement is that it contains nothing yucky – no artificial preservatives, color, dairy, starch, sugar, wheat or yeast.

Adding it all together – quality, purity, and a whole foods source – this is by far the best Vitamin D supplement I have found, and that I’m actually excited to tell people about. Check it out!.

photo credit: Demonsub