Rekha Sharma, president of the Indian Dietetic Association, states that “Close to 40 per cent of Indians are vitamin D deficient.” He blames the condition on the modern lifestyle that is becoming more and more common. Dr. Sharma then goes on to list a few of the causes, including lack of sunlight, that are correlated to vitamin D. He is doing a great service with this article, but states that exposing the face and arms for a few minutes per day is adequate to optimize blood levels of D. He is totally wrong on that statement.
Another Dr. in the article states that those with dark skin may need 10-30 times the exposure time to sunlight to produce the same amount of vitamin D that a light skinned person would require. There is a large disconnect between the statement that a bit of exposure to the arms and face is sufficient, compared to the idea that dark-skinned people need profoundly large quantities of sunlight to make sufficient vitamin D. Notwithstanding the differences between these two docs, It is an interesting an worthwhile article.