The Soaked Bean

Seeking Nourishment, Finding Traditions

Vitamin D 4Ever

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vitDNote from Lucas O.:  We’re all children of the sun, right?  I’m not being religious, I’m just thinking of how bright we all become in summer, like sunflowers growing tall.  This picture was taken last winter in Vancouver during a week of grey skies.  Let’s say it’s time for some vitamin D! 

The sun is shrinking for us in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest night of the year soon approaches.  The Christmas season–with all its twinkle lights and tinsel–can help to cheer our sun-starved spirits, but it’s not, alas, a substitution for the real thing.  The Ultra-Violet (UV) B thing, that ray of sunlight that turns us brown (or red, depending) and, most importantly, stimulates our body’s production of vitamin D.

We tend to think more about vitamin D during winter; it is, after all, the “sunshine” vitamin, produced by our skin with exposure to UV-B light. Here in Geneva, we’ve had weeks, yes weeks, this season without so much of a hint that the sun still exists and this absence of sunlight really emphasizes the lack of vitamin D.

However, the more you learn about vitamin D, the more you realize you should probably be thinking of it more often, not only when the sun disappears.  UV-B rays are fragile.  Only 5% can penetrate glass (bad news if you’re working indoors for long hours) and 0% can get past clouds, smog or fog.  Bad news for us cloudy/smoggy/foggy-city dwellers, indeed.  Further, our exposure to UV-B rays is angle-dependent; the intensity of the rays varies according to altitude and latitude.  It increases when altitude increases and decreases when latitude increases.  Latitudes higher than 30 degrees have insufficient UV-B rays for two-six months of the year, while latitudes higher than 40 degrees are UV-B deficient for six-eight months, much longer than one winter season. (Detroit, hi, you’re at 42 degrees).  Here in Geneva, at 46 degrees, our UV-B rays may be too weak even during the sunniest summer day.  Unless you’re living at the top of a mountain, the majority of the Northern Hemisphere is UV-B deficient for the better part of a year.  Anyone else want to move to Peru?

Even if you find yourself in a latitude where adequate exposure is possible during the summer, you still may find your vitamin D levels lacking.  Remember that sage advice to avoid the sun from 10AM to 2PM and to slather self with sunscreen, shade eyes with lenses and protect head with hat?  Well, in regards to D absorption, it wasn’t so wise.  Sun exposure before 10AM and after 2PM causes burning from UV-A before it can supply sufficient vitamin D from UV-B.  Sunscreen impedes absorption, as do sunglasses, hats, long-sleeves, and any other, well, coverings of the bod.  This doesn’t mean that you must spend your entire summer in the buff to ensure vitamin D production, it just means you should spend 20-120 minutes (depending on skin type and color — the fairer the skin, the less exposure time needed and vice-versa) sun-bathing with as few accoutrements as possible.

But enough talk of summer sunshine and back to grey Geneva.  How are we to receive the vitamin D necessary for proper calcium metabolism and strong, sturdy bones without those precious UV-Bs?  The short answer is with supplements, of course!

The long answer is, as always, slightly more involved.

D2, D3 and You and Me

Vitamin D is available in food sources but, like its mineral friend Iron, there’s a difference between the D found in plant sources and the D in animal ones.  Plant foods contain vitamin D2, or ergocalciferol, if you want to use a word to impress your nutritionist crush.  Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin and uses cholesterol as its primary building block.  As plants do not contain cholesterol, they cannot build calcitriol, or vitamin D3, the more complete version found only in animal foods.  D2 lacks many functions of D3 and thus animal-sources of vitamin D are preferred.

Simple!  So, in order to fulfill my D requirements, I’ll just eat some D-rich animal foods like eggs.

And this is where things can get a bit confusing:

A chart may tell you that egg yolks have oodles of vitamin D.  This is not exactly accurate.  For example, an egg from a chicken who roamed in the sun and pecked insect-specked grasses will contain far higher levels of D3 than an egg from a bird that spent incubation to slaughter indoors.  Vitamin D is, after all, the sunshine vitamin and if an animal’s never seen sunshine, that animal-food won’t contain any D3.

Factory farming has given animal foods an undeserved reputation and many practitioners of holistic wellness are hesitant to recommend the inclusion of them in one’s diet.  During my studies of holistic nutrition, every single one of my instructors recommended a synthetic version of vitamin D3 over, say, some lard from heritage-breed pig or a poached egg from a pasture-raised chicken.  This I found confusing, considering that I chose to study a more alternative approach to nutrition in order to avoid lab-created supplements; in my opinion an isolated, synthetic version of a substance is far less nourishing than the integrated, natural version (if I’m taking vitamin C for my immune system, eating sauerkraut also provides me with, not only loads of vitamin C, but also immune-boosting probiotics.  Now, that’s what I call a whole supplement.)

And so I invite all of ye of the higher-latitude, lower-altitude ilk to join me this season, every season in fulfilling our vitamin D requirements the whole food way.  With lard and eggs, wild-caught oily fish like herring and mackerel, wild-caught salmon, grass-fed butter, and liver from pasture-raised animals.  And if you, like me, find yourself dwelling at a latitude higher than 45 degrees, perhaps a daily spoonful of cod-liver oil, the highest food source of vitamin D3, with your egg breakfast.

References:
Sullivan, Krispin. “The Miracle of Vitamin D.” http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/abcs-of-nutrition/the-miracle-of-vitamin-d/ Published on: December 31, 2000.

Immune Boosting Baby Steps

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winter

Something extraordinary happened this past Saturday.  While on the train to Basel, I received a text message from my older brother with the words “wheatgrass”, “immune system” and “juicing” in it.  Seeing that the brother I know (and love) gives any too-green vegetable the side-eye, as a holistic nutritionist, I was pretty darn pleased.  When I received another message asking for my advice directly after, I straight-up almost fell out of my seat with joy.

You see, for some time now, my family has regarded my interest in holistic wellness with apprehension.  The notion that the foods you have spent years, if not decades, eating are, not only not providing nourishment, but actually contributing to your ailments is a tougher pill to swallow than a pharmaceutical, that’s for sure.

The link between who we are and what we eat is strong.  For many countries, this link is established organically: the foods you eat are the foods that have been growing in your region for centuries.  For us Americans, this link has been manipulated: the foods we eat are the foods that beget the highest profit for their manufacturers and that offer their consumer convenience, economy, and instant satisfaction.

Of course, this is all changing.  As it turns out, it’s a lot harder to swallow your fourth, your fifth, your sixth pharmaceutical pill of the morning than it is to shift your perspective, even by an inch, on wellness. More and more folks are looking to holistic wellness for guidance, my family included.  Conveniently for them, they just so happen to have a holistic nutritionist in the family, and one who is more than eager to help at that.  Perhaps even a little over-eager.

Which brings me back to my brother’s text.  He’d heard wheatgrass would boost his immune system and was wondering whether a supplement would work or if he’d need to juice it himself.  He has a habit of catching the flu during winter and was seeking a more holistic solution.

The short answer to his text is yes, if he were going the wheatgrass route, freshly juiced would be most beneficial.  With its high content of immune-boosting nutrients like vitamin A, C and E, B vitamins (excluding, and contrary to popular belief, B12) and zinc, it would certainly be a step in the nourished direction.  But in my excitement to share what I’ve learned these past few years, I was not contented with the short answer and instead wrote him an, ahem, lengthy email explaining the complexity of our immune systems and enumerating, in detail, the various factors that could positively or negatively affect its function.  Sound encouraging?  Didn’t think so.

Instead of simply answering his question, I realized I was trying to force him from baby step to full-bound leap.  When you’ve become so enmeshed in the holistic wellness world, you can forget how long it’s taken you to make all of the positive changes for your own health.  I mean, doesn’t everyone start their morning with a mug of home-made bone-broth and an egg from pasture-fed, heritage-bred chickens cooked in home-made ghee?  No, no they don’t and that kind of talk can make anyone turn back to their bowl of Captain Crunch.

Baby steps.  “Speed is not the way of success,” as Loulou often says.  While my brother takes baby steps toward boosting his immune system, I’m taking baby steps toward being a more encouraging guide.

Instead of posting the email I sent my brother, I’m taking Loulou’s (and Dr. Leo Marvin’s) advice.

Here are some tips for boosting your immune system this winter, Baby-Steps Style:

#1. Drink water.  2 cups in the morning, 2 in the afternoon and 2 in the evening.  We need 48-64oz a day, which can be hard to remember during winter, or hot chocolate/hot toddy/hot wine season.

#2. Get some sleep.  At least 7, good hours of sleep each night.  Try to wake at the same time every day, as this keeps our physiological clock well-oiled.  If you miss out on sleep, take a power nap during the day to, as one laconic instructor of mine would say, “pay off your sleep debt.”

#3. Practice gratitude.  Our immune systems are hella intertwined with our mental state.  Thinking positively is a given, and I believe it’s best facilitated by taking the time every day to feel grateful for something or other.  Or everything.

#4. Try sauerkraut with your meals.  It’s a major player in immune health and cabbage is aplenty during these winter months. Vitamin C + beneficial bacteria that keeps your gut healthy.  Healthy gut = healthy immune system.

#5. Echinacea, anyone?  My favorite herbal ally is an all-around immune-strengthener.  It’s effective, affordable and easy-to-find.  Try it in tincture form and add a few drops to a glass of water (that you’re now drinking lots of) everyday.