Vitamin D is vitally important for building and maintaining bone structure as well as preventing osteoporosis, depression, certain types of cancer including breast and prostate cancer, and even some of the effects of diabetes. According to Mike Adams of Natural News "vitamin D is perhaps the single most underrated nutrient in the world of nutrition." But since this underrated nutrient comes from sunlight, it's difficult to know if you're getting enough. Some doctors are quoted in the paper as saying you "only need a few minutes per day," but is that entirely accurate? Does someone in Yellowknife need the same few minutes in the sun as someone in "sunny California"?


Season, geographic location, time of day, cloud cover and smog all have an effect on UV ray exposure from the sun and therefore affect vitamin D synthesis. Not to mention variations in individuals like skin pigmentation, whether or not you're wearing sunscreen or how much of your body is covered by clothing.

But fear not. There is now an easy way to find out how much time you should be spending in the sun. Monica Reinagel over at Nutritiondata.com has linked to a great web resource that can help you determine your ideal duration of sun exposure in order to get the minimum UV exposure to produce your required vitamin D for the day. The page was put together by scientists at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research. You simply enter in the required data, like your location and skin pigmentation for example, and the page tells you the minimum time you should be in the sun.

You can find the page here, but I'll warn you - it's a little rough around the edges. It's probably a good idea to follow Monica's instructions on how to use it too, because sometimes it's not so straight forward (do you happen to know your longitude and latitude off the top of your head? Yeah, neither did I).


The Healthy Foodie is Doug DiPasquale, Holistic Nutritionist and trained chef, living in Toronto. You can email him with questions at dugdeep@gmail.com.