How do I get the vitamin D my body needs?

Summary

The two main ways to get vitamin D are by exposing your bare skin to sunlight and by taking vitamin D supplements. You can’t get the right amount of vitamin D your body needs from food.
The most natural way to get vitamin D is by exposing your bare skin to sunlight (ultraviolet B rays). This can happen very quickly, particularly in the summer. You don’t need to tan or burn your skin to get vitamin D. You only need to expose your skin for around half the time it takes for your skin to turn pink and begin to burn. How much vitamin D is produced from sunlight depends on the time of day, where you live in the world and the color of your skin. The more skin you expose the more vitamin D is produced.
You can also get vitamin D by taking supplements. This is a good way to get vitamin D if you can’t get enough sunlight, or if you’re worried about exposing your skin. Vitamin D3 is the best kind of supplement to take. It comes in a number of different forms, such as tablets and capsules, but it doesn’t matter what form you take, or what time of the day you take it.
Different organizations recommend different amounts of vitamin D supplement to take each day. The Vitamin D Council recommends taking larger amounts of vitamin D each day than other organizations, because smaller amounts aren’t enough to give you what your body needs. Most people can take vitamin D supplements with no problems. However, if you have certain health problems or take certain medicines, you may need to take extra care.
Your body gets most of the vitamins and minerals it needs from the foods that you eat. However, there are only a few foods that naturally contain any vitamin D. Most foods that contain vitamin D only have small amounts, so it’s almost impossible to get what your body needs just from food.
Because there are only small amounts of vitamin D in food there are only two sure ways to get enough vitamin D:

• Exposing your bare skin to sunlight to get ultraviolet B (UVB).
• Taking vitamin D supplements.

Exposing your bare skin to sunlight (ultraviolet B)

Human skin can make large amounts of vitamin D when lots of skin is exposed and the sun is high in the sky.

Your body is designed to get the vitamin D it needs by producing it when your bare skin is exposed to sunlight. The part of the sun’s rays that is important is ultraviolet B (UVB). This is the most natural way to get vitamin D.
Large amounts of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) are made in your skin when you expose all of your body to summer sun. This happens very quickly; around half the time it takes for your skin to turn pink and begin to burn. This could be just 15 minutes for a very fair skinned person, yet a couple of hours or more for a dark skinned person.
You don’t need to tan or to burn your skin in order to get the vitamin D you need. Exposing your skin for a short time will make all the vitamin D your body can produce in one day. In fact, your body can produce 10,000 to 25,000 IU of vitamin D in just a little under the time it takes for your skin to turn pink. You make the most vitamin D when you expose a large area of your skin, such as your back, rather than a small area such as your face or arms.
There are a number of factors that affect how much vitamin D your body produces when your skin is exposed to sunlight.  These include the time of year and time of day, where you live in the world and the type of skin you have.
The amount of vitamin D you get from exposing your bare skin to the sun depends on:

• The time of day – your skin produces more vitamin D if you expose it during the middle of the day.
• Where you live – the closer to the equator you live, the easier it is for you to produce vitamin D from sunlight all year round.
• The color of your skin – pale skins make vitamin D more quickly than darker skins.
• The amount of skin you expose – the more skin your expose the more vitamin D your body will produce.

The time of year and time of day

When the sun’s rays enter the Earth’s atmosphere at too much of an angle, the atmosphere blocks the UVB part of the rays, so your skin can’t produce vitamin D. This happens during the early and later parts of the day and during most of the day during the winter season.
The closer to midday you expose your skin, the better this angle and the more vitamin D is produced. A good rule of thumb is if your shadow is longer than you are tall, you’re not making much vitamin D. In winter, you’ll notice that your shadow is longer than you for most of the day, while in summer, your shadow is much shorter for a good part of the middle of the day.

Where you live

The further you live away from the equator, the less vitamin D you can make during the winter, if at all.

The equator is an imaginary line on the Earth’s surface halfway between the North Pole and South Pole, which divides the Earth into the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. The further away you are from the equator, the more of an angle the sun will hit the atmosphere at, and the less UVB there will be available for you to produce vitamin D, particularly during the winter time.
In the summer, when the Earth rotates, the angle improves and more UVB reaches the places far away from the equator, allowing you to produce vitamin D outside of winter months.
For example, in the southern United States, in places like Florida, your body can produce vitamin D most of the year, while in more northern places, like New York City or Boston, you can’t produce much vitamin D from November through March. If you live even further north, like in Edmonton, Canada, you can’t produce vitamin D from October through April. These times are even longer (by a month or two) if you’re skin type is darker.

What about the Southern Hemisphere?

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In Buenos Aires, you can’t produce vitamin D in June. In Cape Town, you can’t produce much vitamin D between mid-May and August. If you live as far south as the bottom tip of Chile and Argentina, you can’t produce vitamin D April through October! If you’re skin is darker, these windows are even longer by a month or two.
Live in Johannesburg? You can produce vitamin D all year round.

Your skin type

Melanin is a substance that affects how light or dark your skin color is. The more melanin you have, the darker your skin color. The amount of melanin you have in your skin affects the amount of vitamin D you can produce.
Melanin protects against skin damage from too much UVB exposure, so darker skins with more melanin allow less UVB to enter the skin. With less UVB getting through the skin, less vitamin D is produced each minute. This is why if you’re dark skinned, you need more sun exposure to make vitamin D than if you’re fair skinned.

The table below shows the different skin types:

Skin Type	Skin color	Skin characteristics
I	White; very fair; red or blond hair; blue eyes; freckles	Always burns, never tans
II	White; fair; red or blond hair; blue, hazel, or green eyes	Usually burns, tans with difficulty
III	Cream white; fair; with any eye or hair color; very common	Sometimes mild burn, gradually tans
IV	Brown; typical Mediterranean Caucasian skin	Rarely burns, tans with ease
V	Dark Brown; mid-eastern skin types	Very rarely burns, tans very easily
VI	Black	Never burns, tans very easily

The paler your skin type the more easily your skin can produce vitamin D. So, if you have skin type I to III, you produce vitamin D more quickly than if you have skin type IV to VI. For example, if you have skin type I, it might take around 15 minutes of sun exposure to get the vitamin D you need, while if you have skin type V or VI, it might take up to six times longer (up to 2 hours).
Because of all these factors – your skin type, where you live and the time of day or season – it can be difficult to work out how much time you need to spend exposing your skin to the sun in order to get the vitamin D you need. A good rule of thumb is to get half the sun exposure it takes for your skin to turn pink to get your vitamin D and expose as much skin as possible.

It can get complicated

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Specific recommendations are not easy! Skin types are different and depending on the day of year, place and time of day, recommendations vary. Let’s see how complicated it can get if we expose a quarter of our body to the sun:

• At noon in Miami, an individual with skin type III would probably need about 6 minutes of exposure to the sun to make 1000 IU of vitamin D in summer and 15 minutes in winter.
• Someone with skin type V would probably need around 15 minutes in summer and 30 minutes in winter.
• At noon in Boston during summer, an individual with skin type III would probably need about 1 hour of exposure to the sun to make 1000 IU of D.
• Someone with skin type V would probably need about 2 hours of exposure.
• During the winter months in Boston, it’s not possible for anyone to make vitamin D from the sun, no matter their skin type.

And that’s assuming you’re exposing a quarter of your body. As you can see, there are lots of things that factor into vitamin D production. The best recommendation is to get half the sun exposure it takes for your skin to turn pink.

Other factors

There are other factors which can affect the amount of vitamin D your body makes from exposure to the sun. These are:

• The amount of skin you expose. The more skin you expose, the more vitamin D you can produce.
• How old you are. As you get older, your skin has a harder time producing vitamin D.
• Whether you’re wearing sunscreen. Sunscreen blocks a lot of vitamin D production.
• The altitude you’re at. The sun is more intense on top of a mountain than at the beach. This means you make more vitamin D the higher up you are (at higher altitudes).
• Whether it is cloudy. Less UVB reaches your skin on a cloudy day and your skin makes less vitamin D.
• Air pollution. Polluted air soaks up UVB or reflects it back into space. This means that if you live somewhere where there is lots of pollution, your skin makes less vitamin D.
• Being behind glass. Glass blocks all UVB, so you can’t make vitamin D if you’re in sunlight, but behind glass.

Indoor tanning

Your skin can also make vitamin D if you use an indoor tanning bed. As with natural sunlight, making the vitamin D you need from a tanning bed happens within minutes. You don’t need to tan your skin, or use a tanning bed for a long time to get the vitamin D you need.
If you choose to use a tanning bed, the Vitamin D Council recommends using the same common sense you use in getting sunlight. This includes:

• Getting half the amount of exposure that it takes for your skin to turn pink.
• Using low-pressure beds that has good amount of UVB light, rather than high-intensity UVA light.

Exposing your skin to UVB and the risk of skin cancer

Exposing your skin to the sun for too long, so that your skin starts to burn can be dangerous. This is because it can increase your risk of developing skin cancers. Research to date shows that moderate but frequent sun exposure is healthy but overexposure and intense exposure can increase your risk of skin cancer.
After you have exposed your skin for half the time it takes for you to turn pink, cover up with clothing and go into the shade. Using sunscreen is not as recommended as using shade and clothing to protect your skin, because it hasn’t consistently been shown to prevent all types of skin cancers. But if you do want to use sunscreen, use a sunscreen that blocks both UVA light and UVB light.

Protecting the skin

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While covering up to prevent too much sun exposure is an important step in protecting yourself from skin cancer, research has not always shown that sunscreen is the safest and most effective method.
Research has shown that sunscreen helps prevent squamous cell carcinoma, but has no effect in preventing basal cell carcinoma. For melanoma, research has been contradictory. Some research shows that sunscreen prevents melanoma, while other research shows that it increases your chance of getting melanoma.
For these reasons, the Vitamin D Council believes that covering up with clothing and/or going into the shade (after you get a little bit of sun exposure), is a safer way to protect yourself from too much sun exposure.
Infants have delicate skin which burns more easily, so it’s important to use extra care with your baby. This is why most doctors recommend giving your infant vitamin D supplement and not exposing your baby’s skin to the sun at all. See our pregnancy and breastfeeding page for more information on how to get the vitamin D your baby needs.
For older children, the advice is the same as for adults. You can expose your child’s skin for half the time it takes to burn in order to get the vitamin D they need. After that, make sure they cover up with clothes, shade and if you wish, sunscreen.
If you have had skin cancer or if you’re worried about exposing your skin to the sun, or that of your child, you can take vitamin D supplements instead.

Vitamin D supplements

In the 21^st century, it’s hard to get daily full body sun exposure. On the days that you can’t get enough sun exposure, taking a supplement is an effective way to get the vitamin D your body needs. It‘s also a good way to get vitamin D if you’re worried about exposing your skin to the sun.

How much vitamin D do I need to take?

Different organizations recommend different daily intakes. Here are the recommendations from some organizations in the United States:

Recommended daily intakes from various organizations:

	Vitamin D Council	Endocrine Society	Food and Nutrition Board
Infants	1,000 IU/day	400-1,000 IU/day	400 IU/day
Children	1,000 IU/day per 25lbs of body weight	600-1,000 IU/day	600 IU/day
Adults	5,000 IU/day	1,500-2,000 IU/day	600 IU/day, 800 IU/day for seniors

The Food and Nutrition Board recommended daily intakes are the official recommendations by the United States government.
Why are the recommendations so different? Some researchers believe that there isn’t enough evidence to support taking higher amounts of vitamin D yet. On the other hand, some researchers believe that research is proving, or will prove, that taking lower amounts isn’t enough.

Can I take more than the recommended amounts?

Yes, you can, but attention and care is needed if you choose to take more supplement than in the recommendations above. Here are the safe maximums set by the same organizations:

Upper limits set by various organizations:

	Vitamin D Council	Endocrine Society	Food and Nutrition Board
Infants	2,000 IU/day	2,000 IU/day	1,000-1,500 IU/day
Children	2,000 IU/day per 25lbs of body weight	4,000 IU/day	2,500-3,000 IU/day
Adults	10,000 IU/day	10,000 IU/day	4,000 IU/day

Vitamin D is fat-soluble, which means your body has a hard time getting rid of it if you take too much. The Vitamin D Council recommends taking no more than the upper limit, meaning do not take anymore than 10,000 IU/day for adults.
While these amounts seem like a lot, keep in mind that your body can produce 10,000 to 25,000 IUs of vitamin D after a little bit of full body sun exposure. Vitamin D toxicity, where vitamin D can be harmful, usually happens if you take 40,000 IU a day for a couple of months or longer.
In some diseases, researchers have studied the safety and benefits (if any) of these types of high doses of vitamin D. These diseases include multiple sclerosis and prostate cancer. If you have a disease for which research has shown there may be a benefit in taking larger amounts of vitamin D, and you would like to consider taking more than 10,000 IU/day, the Vitamin D Council recommends taking the following precautions:

• Work with your doctor
• Test your vitamin D [25(OH)D] levels every 3 months and make sure that your blood levels are within the safe and healthy range.

What form of vitamin D should I take and how should I take it?

Research shows that vitamin D3 is the better type of vitamin D compared to vitamin D2.

The Vitamin D Council recommends taking vitamin D3 rather than vitamin D2. Vitamin D3 is the type of vitamin D your body produces in response to sun exposure, while vitamin D2 is not. In the United States, most over-the-counter vitamin D supplements are D3, but check to make sure. Vitamin D2 is sometimes prescribed by doctors because that is what pharmacies have available. If your doctor prescribes you D2, ask them if you can take vitamin D3 instead.
Vitamin D3 supplements aren’t vegetarian and some part of the production in making them occur outside the United States. If you have ethical concerns with taking vitamin D3, then sun exposure is a good option and vitamin D2 can be an alternative.
Other than that, it doesn’t matter what form of vitamin D you take, whether it’s in a capsule, tablet or liquid drop. For most people, vitamin D is easily absorbed in the body and you don’t need to worry about what time of day you take it or whether you take it with meals.
Cod liver oil contains vitamin D. However, the Vitamin D Council recommends against taking cod liver oil because of the high amount of vitamin A there is in cod liver oil compared to vitamin D. Vitamin A is also a fat-soluble vitamin, so your body has a hard time getting rid of it and too much vitamin A can be harmful.

What if I’m having trouble absorbing vitamin D supplements?

Some people get tested for vitamin D and find, despite taking vitamin D regularly, that they’re still not getting enough vitamin D. This means your body is having a hard time absorbing your vitamin D supplements. The Vitamin D council recommends that if you’re having this problem, you can try these options:

• Take vitamin D under your tongue rather than swallowing it (sublingually).
• Try relying on more sun exposure.
• Increase your intake.

Be sure to test your vitamin D [25(OH)D] levels to make sure your new regimen is safe and effective. The Vitamin D Council recommends testing every 3-6 months if you’re trying different regimens.

Can anyone take vitamin D supplements?

Most people can take vitamin D supplements with no problems. However, care is needed in a few situations. These situations include:

• If you’re taking certain other medicines: digoxin for an irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation) or thiazide diuretics such as hydrochlorothiazide or bendroflumethiazide (commonly used to treat high blood pressure). In this situation, don’t take high doses of vitamin D. You should also have your digoxin level monitored more closely if you’re taking vitamin D.
• If you have one of these medical conditions: primary hyperparathyroidism, Hodgkin’s or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a granulomatous disease, kidney stones, some types of kidney disease, liver disease or hormonal disease, you should get advice from a specialist. See our Hypersensitivity page for more information.
• Don’t take vitamin D if you have high blood calcium levels, unless under the care of your physician.
• You may need more than the usual dose of vitamin D if you’re taking certain medicines which interfere with vitamin D. These include: carbamazepine, phenytoin, primidone, barbiturates and some medicines used for the treatment of HIV infection.

Can I get sun exposure and take supplements?

Yes. In fact, that is the Vitamin D Council’s recommendation. On days that you do not get enough full body sun exposure, it is important to take a supplement. For most people on the Monday-Friday indoor work schedule, that means taking a supplement 5-6 days a week and getting sun exposure on a day or two during the weekend.

Can I get vitamin D from my diet?

There are small amounts of vitamin D in a few foods, which makes it nearly impossible to get what you need from food. However, these foods include:

• Fatty fish
• Beef liver
• Egg yolks
• Fortified milk and orange juice
• Fortified cereals
• Infant formula

The Vitamin D Council believes that trying to get enough vitamin D from your diet is unlikely to give you the vitamin D you need.

The Best Time of Day to Exercise

Research may help determine the best time of day for exercise

By Elizabeth Quinn

Updated May 16, 2014

Is there a best time of day to exercise? Two of the top reasons people give for not exercising regularly include lack of results and lack of time. So, for many people, the best time to exercise is the time that is most convenient and the time that fits into a busy schedule. Research on exercise and time of day is growing, but still limited and and not without controversy. In general, if you can find a time for exercise that you can stick with consistently, you will be much more likely to train regularly and get better results.

Circadian Rhythms and Exercise

Human sleep and wake cycles follow a daily cycle called circadian rhythms. It's this cycle that regulates our body temperature, blood pressure, alertness and metabolism, among other physiological functions. In general, these rhythms conform to our 24-hour day and may be reset based upon environmental cues. The time of day that we typically exercise is one of these cues. Research by the University of North Texas, in Denton found that although circadian rhythms are inborn we can reset them based upon our behaviors. For example, using an alarm clock, establishing meal times and even when we workout are all cues to help rest our rhythms. They found that people who consistently exercise in the morning "teach" their body to be most ready for exercise at that time of day. When they switched to evening exercise, they didn't feel as strong. Also See: Does Jet Lag Decrease Athletic Performance?
The ability to adjust your rhythms is important for athletes training for a specific event. The message is to train at the same time of day that the event will occur. Research supports this advice. Studies show that your ability to maintain exercise intensity will adapt to your training time. Therefore, if you do your marathon training in the morning, you may perform better on race day (marathons typically start in the morning). But if you train in the evening, a morning race day may leave you feeling weaker and slower.

Individual Differences and Exercise Timing

Some people are just naturally morning people. They have no trouble exercising first thing in the morning. Others don't get moving so quickly and are more likely to feel like exercising later in the day. If you have such an obvious preference it's pretty easy to decide what sort of exercise schedule you might stick with. The interesting thing is that research shows that no matter when you think you are better able to exercise, almost all of us are, in fact, physically stronger and have more endurance in the late afternoon.

Scheduling Exercise

Not everyone can choose to exercise when they feel like it. Work and family commitments often take priority and we end up squeezing in some exercise. If you find that the only time you have to exercise is when you least feel like it, don't despair. As we learned earlier, you can change your rhythms and your body can adapt to a new exercise time. However, it may take about a month to reset your internal exercise clock. (get tips on adjusting your circadian rhythms during air travel).

Research and the Best Time to Exercise

While there is specific research being conducted on this topic, unfortunately the answer to the question, "What is the best time for exercise?" varies based upon the specific question you ask, your training goals, and your exercise adherence. Here are some of the latest specific research findings:

• Late Afternoon is Best for Exercise
  Research shows that the optimal time to exercise is when our body temperature is at its highest, which, for most people is 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. (body temperature is at its lowest just before waking).
• Strength is Greater in the Afternoon
  Dr. Hill reported that strength output is 5% higher at around mid-day; anaerobic performance, such as sprinting, improves by 5% in the late afternoon.
• Endurance is Greater in the Afternoon
  Aerobic capacity (endurance) is approximately 4percent higher in the afternoon.
• Injuries Are Less Likely in the Afternoon
  Afternoon exercise is the best if you want to avoid injuries for many reasons. We are most alert; our body temperature is the highest so our muscles are warm and flexible; and our muscle strength is at its greatest. These three factors make it less likely that we will get injured.
• Morning Exercisers Are More Consistent
  Even though afternoon exercise might be optimal from a physiological standpoint, research also shows that morning exercisers are more likely to stick to it that late-day athletes.
• Evening Exercise and Sleep
  Most research supports the idea that exercise can improve sleep quality. But does exercising too late in the evening keep you up? Studies have shown improvements in sleep from both morning and afternoon exercise, so it's not yet clear if evening exercise keeps you up. One study even showed that vigorous exercise half an hour before bedtime did not affect sleep. One thing that is agreed upon is that sleep deprivation can hinder sports performance.

The Bottom Line
The good news is that you get to decide the best time for you to exercise based upon your personal goals, schedule and lifestyle. Ideally, you will pick a time that you are able to stick with consistently and make part of your daily or weekly schedule. If you are training for competition, it's wise to modify your training to accommodate the event start time, and it's always wise to warm up before any workout. Also See: Why Your Workouts Don't Work.

8 Foods Every Vegetarian Should Eat

BY Laura Flynn McCarthy

 There is a world of reasons to go meatless, from heart health to animal welfare. But nutritionally, there’s one tricky trade-off. You drastically shrink your body’s supply of six vital nutrients: protein and iron—which can be the toughest to get in adequate quantities—plus calcium, zinc, vitamin B12 and vitamin D. To help you fill in these gaps, we tapped the expertise of nutritionist Cynthia Sass, RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association—and a vegan, so she totally gets it. Here we’ve identified the “great eight” foods. All are loaded with one or more of these hard-to-get nutrients.

Tofu
Why it’s great: Plain tofu has a lot going for it. It’s a terrific source of protein, zinc, iron, and it even contains some cholesterol-lowering omega-3 fatty acids. It also gives you more than 100 milligrams (mg) of calcium in a half cup. But the same amount of calcium-enriched tofu gives you up to 350 mg (about one-third of your daily needs) plus roughly 30 percent of your daily vitamin D, which helps your body absorb the calcium—an extra bone-building punch that many people need. Look for enriched soymilk, too, which is also fortified with calcium and vitamin D.
Tip: “Tofu can be substituted for the same amount of meat, poultry or fish in almost any recipe,” says Sass. Firm tofu works best because it holds its shape when you sauté it or grill it.


Lentils
Why they’re great: Lentils, like beans, are part of the legume family, and like beans, they’re an excellent source of protein and soluble fiber. But lentils have an edge over most beans: They contain about twice as much iron. They’re also higher in most B vitamins and folate, which is especially important for women of childbearing age as folate reduces the risk for some birth defects. For new vegetarians, lentils are also the perfect way to start eating more legumes because they tend to be less gassy.
Tip: Lentil soup is just the beginning. Add lentils to vegetable stews, chilis or casseroles. Toss them with red onions and vinaigrette. Stir them into curries; cook them with carrots. Experiment with different varieties—red lentils (right) cook up very fast and can be turned into bright purées.



Beans
Why they’re great: A cup a day gives you about one-third of your iron and protein and roughly half your fiber. Even better, most of that is soluble fiber, which helps lower cholesterol. One cup also provides a good amount of potassium, zinc and many B vitamins, and some calcium too. Just one alert: Rinse canned beans well—they can be soaked in salt.
Tip: It was once thought that to get a complete protein, you needed to combine beans with grains (rice, pasta, bread) at the same meal. “Now we know you just have to eat them during the same day,” Sass says. Toss beans and vegetables with whole wheat pasta; make soups and chilis with several varieties; add a sprinkling to grain salads. And for a different taste treat, look for canned heirloom varieties.



Nuts
Why they’re great: They’re a nifty source of quick, totally palatable protein. In additon, walnuts, peanuts, almonds, cashews, pecans, macadamias and Brazil nuts are rich in zinc, vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids. Some, like almonds, even provide a decent amount of calcium (about 175 mg in a half cup). There’s also some great nut news: “Recent studies show that even though nuts are high in calories, eating them does not lead to weight gain,” says Sass. In fact, people who eat nut-rich diets tend to weigh less than those who don’t, say researchers at Loma Linda University and Purdue University. Peanuts may even help weight loss. Why nuts don’t make you fat—and may even help you lose weight—isn’t clear. “It’s possible that nuts make you feel so full that you’re less likely to overeat other foods,” says Sass. Other experts suspect that the labor-intense job of digesting nuts burns off calories. There are also hints that nuts increase the amount of fat that passes through the digestive tract, which might explain nut-linked weight loss. More research is obviously needed!
Tip: Different nuts give you different nutrients. For example, a half cup of almonds provides about four times as much fiber as the same amount of cashews. Cashews, however, contain about twice as much iron and zinc as almost any other nut. Pecans and walnuts tend to land right in the middle for most nut nutrients—potassium, magnesium, zinc and calcium. Sprinkle them in salads, or keep a bag of mixed nuts in your desk or backpack. Garnish smooth soups with crunchy whole nuts, stir chopped nuts into muffins and add crushed nuts to pie crust.


Grains
Why they’re great: Some enriched whole-grain cereals are fortified with hard-to-get vitamin B12—some even offer 100 percent of a day’s requirement in one serving—as well as iron, calcium and many other nutrients. Keep in mind that if you don’t eat eggs or dairy, you’ll have to take a B12 supplement to make sure you’re getting enough. As a group, cereals and other whole-grain foods (whole wheat breads and pastas, brown rice, etc.) are also high in other B vitamins, zinc and, of course, insoluble fiber, which not only helps whisk cholesterol out of your system but may reduce your risk of colon cancer and other digestive disorders.
Tip: Because different grains provide different nutrients, vary the types you eat. “It’s easy to get into a rut of, say, just making brown rice all the time. It’s better to mix up the grains you eat, including oatmeal, bulgur, wild rice, whole rye and pumpernickel breads,” says Sass. Also try some of the ancient grains—spelt, farro, kamut—which are now sold at most whole foods markets.


Leafy Greens
Why they’re great: Unlike most vegetables, dark leafy greens such as spinach, broccoli, kale, Swiss chard and collards contain healthful amounts of iron—especially spinach, which has about 6 grams or about one-third of a day’s supply. They’re also a great source of cancer-fighting antioxidants; are high in folic acid and vitamin A; and they even contain calcium, but in a form that’s not easily absorbed. Cooking greens and/or sprinkling them with a little lemon juice or vinegar makes the calcium more available to your body, says Sass.
Tip: Always try to eat iron-rich foods with foods that are high in vitamin C because the C helps your body absorb the iron. With dark leafy greens, this comes naturally—just toss them into salads with yellow and red peppers, tomatoes, carrots, mandarin oranges or any citrus. Or if you prefer your veggies cooked, sauté a couple of cups of greens in some seasoned olive oil with sweet peppers, garlic and onion.


Seaweeds
Why they’re great: Besides being a terrific source of iron and phytochemicals, many seaweeds—such as alaria, dulse, kelp, nori, spirulina and agar—are good sources of minerals, including magnesium, calcium, iodine, iron and chromium, as well as vitamins A, C, E and many of the Bs. Talk about superfoods!
Tip: Add chopped dulse to salads or sandwiches, sauté it with other vegetables or use it in soups. Use nori sheets as the wrappers for vegetarian sushi. Toast kelp, and crumble it on pasta or rice, or add it to noodle soups. Browse through Japanese or Korean markets to find seaweeds to sample.



Dried Fruits
Why they’re great: They’re good, super-convenient sources of iron—and if you combine them with some mixed nuts, you’ve got a packet of iron and protein you can take anywhere easily. In addition, dried fruits—think apricots, raisins, prunes, mangos, pineapple, figs, dates, cherries and cranberries—provide a wide array of minerals and vitamins as well as some fiber. And even kids love to snack on them.
Tip: Sprinkle them on salads, use in chutneys, stir into puréed squash and sweet potatoes, or blend with nuts and seeds to make your own favorite snack mix. Chopped up, dried fruits make healthful additions to puddings, fruit-based pie fillings, oat bars, cookies, hot and cold cereals—you name it.

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(Dân trí) - Thưa bác sĩ, gần đây thỉnh thoảng bụng tôi lại sôi lên, đôi khi phát tiếng động rất rõ. Vậy xin cho hỏi nguyên nhân gây ra hiện tượng này là do đâu? Và tôi có cần phải đến gặp bác sĩ?

Trả lời:

Những hiện tượng như đầy hơi, ợ chua, ợ nóng, khó tiêu hay sôi bụng, thường là những biểu hiện khá thường gặp. Phần lớn đây là những biểu hiện bình thường và không đáng lo ngại. Tuy nhiên, theo như bạn mô tả, triệu chứng sôi bụng xảy ra đối với bạn đã khá lâu, và ngày càng có xu hướng xấu đi. Cho nên, trong trường hợp này, tôi khuyên bạn nên tới gặp bác sĩ để có những xét nghiệm và kết luận chính xác.

Triệu chứng sôi bụng thường xảy ra khi bạn cảm thấy đói, hay khi bạn ngửi hoặc trông thấy những món ăn hấp dẫn, lý giải cho điều này là do "phản ứng" của bộ não đối với hệ thống tiêu hóa. Đây cũng là nguyên nhân khiến cho các cơ bụng và ruột bắt đầu hoạt động và tiết ra những dịch vị tiêu hóa. Những dịch vị tiêu hóa này tương tác với không khí và men tiêu hóa trong hệ thống của ruột và đa phần thì quá trình này diễn ra một cách "thầm lặng".

Cũng xin nói thêm rằng, nguyên nhân của chứng sôi bụng có thể là do:

- Áp dụng một chế độ ăn uống mới, đặc biệt nếu đó là chế độ ăn uống giảm hàm lượng calo hay hạn chế những dưỡng chất cần thiết.

- Do bạn không "hợp" với những loại thực phẩm như sữa, đậu, thực phẩm có nhiều chất xơ...

- Do việc thu nạp đồ uống có chứa cafein và cácbon hydrat.

- Do nuốt phải nhiều không khí. Hiện tượng này thường gặp khi bạn ăn quá nhanh, hay khi hút thuốc lá.

- Ăn những loại thực phẩm có chứa hàm lượng đường lớn.

- Do tư thế ngồi, nằm.

- Do bụng bị nịt chặt, như khi dùng thắt lưng hay mặc quần chật.

- Do stress.

Nhìn chung, việc xuất hiện hiện tượng sôi bụng thì không nguy hiểm lắm đến sức khỏe. Bạn có thể khắc phục tình trạng này trong vòng từ 2 đến 3 tuần, bằng cách hãy ghi lại những loại thực phẩm và đồ uống bạn đã sử dụng, những phương thức tập luyện bạn đã từng áp dụng, bạn đã làm gì trước, trong và sau khi ăn. Bạn có bị stress, lo lắng hay buồn phiền về điều gì không? Bạn có thói quen bỏ bữa hay không? Để từ đó tìm ra nguyên nhân và cải thiện tình hình.

Khi tới gặp bác sĩ bạn cần chuẩn bị trước những câu trả lời cho các câu hỏi như:

- Gần đây bạn có thay đổi thói quên ăn uống hay không? Bạn thường có thói quen ăn nhanh hay ăn chậm?

- Bạn có bị dị ứng với loại thực phẩm nào không?

- Bạn có bị đau bụng không?

- Có phải bạn đang thực hiện mục đích giảm cân?

- Việc đi cầu của bạn có gì bất thường không?

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Hạn chế “sôi” bụng

Tôi rất hay bị sôi bụng, tiếng kêu rất to, mặc dù bụng không trướng hay đau. Xin bác sĩ hướng dẫn cách điều trị?

Hoàng Văn Hào (Thái Nguyên)

Bạn nên đi làm các xét nghiệm máu, phân và nước tiểu xem có bị bệnh gì dẫn đến chứng sôi bụng đó không. Nếu không tìm ra bệnh thì có thể bạn bị hội chứng đại tràng kích thích. Hội chứng này thường gặp nhiều ở tuổi từ 20-40 và gặp ở nữ nhiều hơn nam. Bệnh này không nguy hiểm đến tính mạng, nhưng khiến người bệnh khó chịu, bực bội và xấu hổ, ảnh hưởng tới sinh hoạt hằng ngày. Cho đến nay, y học vẫn chưa tìm được nguyên nhân gây ra hội chứng trên. Rất có thể hội chứng này có liên quan đến yếu tố tâm lý như lo lắng quá độ, stress... Vì thế, để khỏi bệnh, điều đầu tiên cần phải giảm căng thẳng và lo lắng, có cuộc sống thoải mái, làm việc và nghỉ ngơi điều độ. Hằng ngày nên ăn nhiều chất xơ, hạn chế chất béo và gia vị. Không uống rượu bia, không hút thuốc lá. Năng vận động như đi bộ, tập các động tác lưng - bụng, tập yoga. Ngoài ra, bạn có thể dùng thêm các thuốc làm giảm co thắt ruột theo hướng dẫn của bác sĩ điều trị.

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