Soggy Summer Making You Sick?

Even royalty gets rained on - Diamond Jubilee River Pageant

Sorry to break it to you, but this record rain is going to continue throughout most of summer. Not only is this bad for our moods, doctors are concerned that vitamin D deficiencies are going to start to take their toll, but there are ways to get your vit D fix without a dose of sunshine.

To get enough Vitamin D, it’s recommended to be exposed to 20 to 30 minutes of sun, three or four times a week. Due to the fact that this is highly unlikely for most of us living in the UK, the British Medical Association has warned of an explosion of illnesses such as rickets, fractured bones, and MS, especially among children.

These are obviously extreme cases, but bone pain and muscle weakness is very common. Ask the quarter of people living the UK who already have low vitamin D counts.

As it’s unlikely that the NHS will adopt a policy to prescribe holidays in the sun, the BMA has called for a national vitamin D supplement programme. But if this all sounds a bit overwhelming, there are ways to simply boost your vitamin D intake through the foods you eat.

Here are some of the best -

Shiitake & Button Mushrooms:

Found in a lot of Asian foods, shiitake mushrooms are usually dried, and due to their sun soaking skills are very high in vitamin D.

Oyster and shiitake mushrooms. Image by Robert Couse-Baker)

Salmon:

Salmon like to feast on zooplankton, a great source of vitamin D. If we eat 3½ ounces of cooked salmon we’ll get 90% of our dietary intake.

Sardines:

Not everyone’s favourite, but sardines are one of the best foods containing Vitamin D. Just one small can of these salty little suckers will provide you with approximately 70% of your daily needs.

Tuna:

Thank goodness for spicy tuna sushi rolls and sashimi, never has tuna been so tasty and easy to eat on the go. Eat 3 ounces of tuna daily and you’ll be getting 50% of your vitamin D needs.

Spicy Tuna Roll. Image by stu_spivack

Eggs:

They are little after all, so they only provide 10% of your daily needs. But, that’s still more vitamin D than you’d get on a cloudy day.

The sad soggy statistics – June was the third wettest on record, with 122.3mm of rain. This puts it just behind the second wettest June, in 1912, which saw 124.5mm of rain, and a little way off June 2007, which saw 136.2mm.

Tell us, are you concerned about your vitamin D intake, or do you think this is all a storm in a teacup?