Icing on the vitamin D cake

I’ve told you about exciting new studies that underscore the importance of vitamin D. And today’s study may be the icing on the cake. It links higher vitamin D intake with lower body weight. And better metabolic health.

Published in the journal Nutrition, this study followed the effects of calcium/vitamin D consumption in healthy, overweight, and obese adults. The subjects took 125 IU of vitamin D and 600 mg of calcium per day while following a low-calorie diet.

The researchers found that low-cal dieters with higher calcium and vitamin D levels had a significantly greater loss of body fat. This included visceral fat in the abdomen.

(However, researchers would never have discovered this by measuring body weight alone. Or by calculating body mass index alone. These measurements are limited, as I explained in my Insiders’ Cures newsletter. If you don’t subscribe to my newsletter, now is the perfect time to get started.)

The researchers also discovered that subjects who took vitamin D for 12 weeks improved their body and visceral fat loss–even with low calcium intake.

So get outside. Spend some time in the sun without sunscreen. You’ll get a little healthy color on your skin and may even lose a few pounds. (Not to mention boosting your bone health and protecting yourself from any number of chronic illnesses.)

Source:

1. Nutrition Journal 2013; 12:8.