In fact, sunshine is the only natural and intended source of vitamin D on the planet. Dietary sources of vitamin D — with the exception of fatty fish like salmon and tuna — are unnaturally supplemented with “The Sunshine Hormone” at small levels well below what nature gives you naturally when you expose your skin to the sun.
Why is that important? Because in the past few years we’ve learned:
(1) The amount of vitamin D you need to regulate proper cell growth in every system in your body is only naturally consistent with the levels of vitamin D you make when you are exposed to regular sunshine.
(2) Dietary supplements are an unreliable way to make vitamin D. In a recent study, most vitamin D pills do not have the vitamin D claimed on the label. (http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/CMSC-ACTRIMS/20522)
(3) Cosmetic Dermatologists, who for years have told us to get our vitamin D unnaturally from pills and to avoid the sun, are dangerously low in vitamin D themselves. A 2006 study of dermatologists in sunny Melbourne, Australia, found that 83 percent of dermatologists were vitamin D deficient and that for the skin doctors “the average (vitamin D) level was lower than that of elderly impatients in a Melbourne hospital.”
(4) Those who get the most sun exposure have the highest vitamin D levels — levels naturally consistent with what we now know humans need to regulate cell growth, which greatly reduces your risk of most cancers, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and many other conditions.
