It is no longer necessary to hope that you can get vitamin D by staying outside. It is also difficult for many Finns to get enough of it from food alone.
The skin produces vitamin D from the sun’s radiation when the UV index exceeds level three, Terveyskirjasto says. In practice, in Finland, you only get enough vitamin D from the sun during the summer months, the publication continues. According to the Institute of Health and Welfare and the Food Agency, it is possible to get vitamin D from the sun between March and October.
In the dark season, when even the brightest time of the day is often mostly just gray, it is therefore worth getting vitamin D from other sources.
In food, vitamin D is found naturally in, for example, fish and mushrooms, added in fat spreads and dairy products. However, it is difficult for many people to get enough vitamins from food alone.
The recommended dose is ten micrograms per day.
– At the population level, the recommended dosage of vitamin D supplement is 10 micrograms, but it is good to understand what it is aiming for: that the majority of people do not have a vitamin deficiency, medical center Mehiläinen osteoporosis clinic general medicine specialist Ari Rosenvall told Iltalehte in 2021.
According to him, a dose of ten micrograms may be enough to keep the deficiency state away, but may not help to reach the ideal level.
– If you are aiming for the ideal level, the alternatives are to find out your vitamin D need accurately with a blood test or to increase your vitamin D dosage closer to one hundred rather than ten micrograms, Rosenvall said.
Terveyskirjasto says that according to the position of the European Food Agency, one hundred micrograms is the upper limit of a safe daily dose for an adult. The Health Library also adds that the upper limit of a safe daily dose is different from the intake recommendation, although a daily dose of one hundred micrograms may be necessary to correct a severe deficiency.
