You may have heard that everyone should take a vitamin D supplement. But what’s the science behind that? And are some brands better than others?
In the fourth episode of a brand new series of our health and wellbeing podcast, we sit down with Shefalee Loth, a public health nutritionist at Which?, and Sophie Medlin, founder of City Dietitians to explain how you can naturally get vitamin D, when you should be taking supplements, and the risks of getting too much into your body.
Plus, for the first time ever, Which? has tested and reviewed vitamin D supplements from a range of suppliers. We reveal some of the best on the market, plus which of those received the coveted Which? Best Buy.
Which? members can listen to the full episode where we reveal our test results by clicking here (https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/do-you-really-need-to-take-multivitamins-a72Pb5T7VZ7K) .
If you’re not already a member, join Which? (https://which.co.uk/podcastoffer) to instantly listen to the podcast and gain access to all of our product reviews – all for 50% off your first year’s membership.
Read all of our review of viamin D supplements (https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/nutrition-and-supplements/article/best-vitamin-d-supplements-afvPf0y5YfU9) & sign up for our free monthly Food & Health newsletter (https://signup.which.co.uk/wlp-foodandhealthnewsletter?internalReferral=incopypromotion)
We’ve all been there. The washing machine is beyond repair and all you want to know is which new model you should buy. Well, that’s where the which just by this recommendations come in. Handpicked recommendations that our product testing experts think you should buy. We’ve got over 50 products with a just by this recommendation. From dishwashers to TVs, cordless vacuums to fitness trackers. And yes, it can be useful to spend time reading our in-depth reviews. But when you need a quick fix, a just by this recommendation can save the day. To find out which products have our new seal of approval, just head to witch.co.uk/justby this. That’s witch.co.uk/justby this. We’ll get it right with. You may have heard that everyone should take vitamin D, but what’s the science behind that? And are some brands better than others? Let’s find out on this podcast from which. Hello, I’m Rob Lily Jones and I’ll be with you for the final three episodes in this series aimed to help you live better every day. Now, if you haven’t heard any of our episodes so far or watched any on our YouTube channel, make sure to go back and have a listen or have a watch because we’ve already covered some fascinating topics in the world of health and well-being, specifically focusing on supplements. And today is no different. Of course, I’ve already mentioned we are talking vitamin D and I’m doing so once again with our brilliant guests joining me in the studio. We of course have Shafali Loth, public health nutritionist here at Witch. Shafali, welcome. Hi Rob. And we are also joined once again by the brilliant Sophie Medlin, consultant dietician and founder of City Dieticians. Welcome. Hi, thanks for having me. It is great to have you both here. Thank you for being here. Now vitamin D today the one thing that I know is that we can get it from the sun but it’s also in a supplement. So what is it exactly and what can it do for us? Okay, vitamin D is a fats soluble vitamin. So it’s just part of our range of vitamins that we need to have in our bodies and it’s really well known for its importance in bone health. So it helps to direct calcium to our bones and make sure that our bones can stay strong. but it’s also really important for immunity, which is particularly of interest at this time of year. And it’s also important for our brain health and mental health in general. So, it’s got loads of really important roles in the body um that have been perhaps neglected until quite recently because we didn’t realize that unless we’re getting it from sunlight, we’re going to struggle to get enough of it. Is there is there a leak table of vitamins? And if there was, is vitamin D towards the top just given some of the stuff you just said? Yeah, I mean I would say because it’s so difficult to get it from food or enough of it from food, particularly if your skin is darker, we do need to take it in supplement form. So it is something that we’re more aware of and that we are taking more seriously as nutrition professionals. For sure. Right. So you mentioned there it’s difficult to get from food. Chafali, can you get it from food? And if so, which foods? You can get it from food, but as Sophie says, you can’t get enough from food. So really, um, in terms of food sources, you’re thinking oily fish. Um, some dairy products will have it in. Some foods are fortified with vitamin D. And then some mushrooms that are grown in particular conditions will have vitamin D in too. But actually, it’s really, really difficult, nion impossible, I’d say, to get enough from your diet. Now, you did mention sun. So, we can get some vitamin D or enough vitamin D from the sun in specific months in the UK. So, that’s between May and September. So really outside of those between October and April really everyone should be taking a vitamin D supplement. So I mean obviously we’re talking in the autumn. We have actually had quite a good summer you know at the time we’re talking here in in the UK. But is it safe to say that the UK is probably more deficient in vitamin D as a population than than maybe you know Spain for example or Greece or some of those Mediterranean countries? Yeah absolutely. I think that the research when they were looking at how much vitamin D or how much sunlight I should say we need to get to get enough vitamin D, they were looking at people standing out for an hour in the midday sun in Spain in the summertime. So what they found from that is that the darker your skin, the longer you need to stay out for, and the lighter your skin, the less time and sun exposure you need to get enough vitamin D. And I think what that really speaks to is that we in this country, we work indoors 99% of the time. Most people work indoors. Often people also cover up for cultural or religious reasons or because of trying to prevent sun damage for example. And so actually it’s really difficult for most people to get enough vitamin D. But again the darker your skin tone the more sun exposure you need to get enough vitamin D and that puts certain demographics of people at higher risk. Now I mean full disclosure we are talking in our windowless basement. So we we are not getting much of our daily vitamin D at the time at which we’re talking here. Given everything we’ve said then it sounds like we should be taking a vitamin D supplement. Should everyone be taking vitamin D? Yeah, the NHS recommends that everybody takes a vitamin D supplement between the months of October and April and that’s children and adults. And then if you belong to certain demographics, so if you have darker skin or if you spend a lot of time inside such as if you’re elderly or also if you cover up your skin quite a lot then if you belong to one of those groups really you should think about taking a supplement all year round. I mean this is fascinating because it’s not something I’ve ever done. So already just obviously having this conversation that’s making me think you know this is clearly something that I should should think about doing. And obviously later on in the episode we will get on to some of the vitamin D supplements that we of course have been looking at here at which it sounds like it’s very very important that we get the right amount. So if we aren’t getting the right amount of vitamin D, if we are deficient, what are some of the negative consequences for us and for our well-being? H. So I suppose some of the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency would be often muscular aches or feeling like particularly tired and lethargic. Also getting sick all the time. So get catching every virus that goes around. And then mood changes I would expect to see as well. And it’s quite surprising how frequently people are found to be vitamin D deficient. Lots of people listening to it this may have been found to be vitamin D deficient from their GP and put on supplements by their GP. So it’s quite a common deficiency in the UK as we’ve discussed. And so those are some of the the symptoms that you might expect to see and feel. If it’s allowed to go on for too long, it can, you know, your immunity can be further worn down, your mood can be further worn down, but also you can develop bone density problems. So osteoporosis, osteopenia, which is like presteoporosis, can start to occur. And you know, the good news is a lot of that is reversible with enough vitamin D and supplementation. So that sounds like then I know we’ve touched on this already but older people really important children as well is important for them. Yeah, I think they say that babies have to have vitamin D drops as well. Yeah, basically um if you’re if you’re breastfeeding your baby then really they should be getting vitamin D drops from 6 months on. Um and if your baby is formulafed then actually formula tends to be fortified with vitamin D so you don’t need to add it on top. And before we get into the specifics of of some of the brands out there as well and the ones that we’ve been looking into, there are different types of supplements or or rather different ways that we can take vitamin D. So, you know, we’ve got tablets, we’ve got gummies, we’ve got sprays. You mind just sort of talking us through, you know, some of those different options out there and and I don’t know if some are better than others or or whether they’re just different different things for different people. Yeah, so vitamin D comes in lots of different forms like other supplements now. So sometimes they’ll be in a capsule and hopefully there’ll be oil in that capsule which helps with absorption of the vitamin D. Sometimes it’s in tablet form and there’s unlikely to be oil in there. So it’s important to take that with food. Mouth sprays are absorbed through the lining of the mouth itself. So they’re particularly good for people who have for example gastrointestinal problems, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis or uh celiac disease for example. So if you have any digestive issues then a mouth spray is a good idea for you. They also come in effervescent. So it ends up as a drink. I think that might be overkill in terms of the number of additives that have to be put in there to make it taste good and to work as an effrovescent, but that’s a personal preference thing. People don’t like tablets sometimes. And then there’s the gummies. And you know, full disclosure, I’m not a fan of gummies because you have to put so many other ingredients in there to make it into what is essentially a sweet. And with vitamin D and other things, there are plenty of other options like a mouth spray for children or for whoever can’t take a tablet, which would do really well. So, it’s just about thinking about what’s best for you and your family and what you’ll routinely take and what can build into a good habit for you. Presumably with gummies then there’s quite a lot of sugar in there potentially as well. Sugar or sweeteners and then there’s usually colorings and flavorings and stabilizers and all sorts of other things in there as well. And you mentioned effevescence and then now having said earlier on I don’t think I’ve ever taken a vitamin D supplement. Maybe I have. Is this the sort of dissolvable from the well-known brands that we probably know? You put it in the bottom of a glass, you add some water and then it it becomes bright orange and I mean maybe too much information, but then also so does your Wii. I think that the one you’re thinking of maybe doesn’t contain vitamin D. I’m not 100% sure, but I know it contains some B vitamins and vitamin C, but I’m not sure it contains vitamin D, which brings us on to an important point actually is that lots of different foods do contain vitamin D and lots of different supplements contain vitamin D. So, you do have to be a bit careful not to take too much if you’re taking it in one supplement form and then it’s elsewhere as well in your diet or in your other supplements you’re taking. Now, this is something that’s come up before on some of our earlier episodes, the issue around obviously we’ve we’ve talked about not taking enough and being deficient in in vitamin D in this case, but but taking too much. What could some of the consequences be of taking too much vitamin D? Well, the NHS recommends that the upper limit or the upper safe limit for vitamin D is 100 micrograms a day. And really, people shouldn’t be taking in excess of that over long periods. Now, if you are deficient, your GP might prescribe a short course of really high dose vitamin D, but really you don’t want to be taking that over a prolonged period of time. The risk of taking too much vitamin D is actually calcification of your vessels. um which obviously is a serious one. Sounds very serious. Yeah. And also I was just reading obviously you’ve got vitamin D as an overall term but there’s vitamin D2 and vitamin D3. I mean what are the differences between those two? Vitamin D2 needs to be converted in the body into vitamin D3 for it to be active and used within the body. And so it’s sort of the less bioavailable is the term we would use less bioavailable form of vitamin D. So ideally when we’re looking at a vitamin D supplement, we want the most bioavailable form, which is vitamin D3. And there’s also vitamin K. What is vitamin K? I know we’re talking about vitamin D obviously on this podcast, but it sounds like vitamin K we need to touch on as well. There’s been a lot of interesting press and research into the importance of taking vitamin D and vitamin K together over recent years. Now, this research is really still early, so we’re not 100% sure. What we think to be true is that if you’re taking a high dose of vitamin D, it’s a good idea to take vitamin K with it. The vitamin K can help to stop the vitamin D from calcifying the vessels in our body, our blood vessels, and direct it appropriately to our bones. But it seems from the research that’s happened so far that if you’re on a moderate or low dose of vitamin D, it’s not so important. And we can get plenty of vitamin K from our diet as long as we’re eating lots of leafy as long as we’re eating lots of leafy greens and other healthy foods. And I feel like obviously we have to touch on this because I think we’ve pretty much touched on it on every single one of our episodes so far. The world of misinformation that’s out there. You mentioned Sophie with vitamin K research is still early. When research is still being formed that can allow a bit of a loophole for some influence to get involved and maybe put some stuff out there that that is disproven. And I’m sure it’s the same with with vitamin K and vitamin D. Yeah. Well, I I think back to COVID and you know there was a lot of hype around vitamin D during COVID about how it could prevent illness or and actually you know that was unfounded obviously vitamin D is linked to immunity. So that’s probably where it the claims or the idea came from but obviously but they were then hugely exaggerated. Now, I think vitamin D isn’t one of the things where there’s a lot of fake news or hype, unnecessary hype about. What do you think? No, I agree. But I think that the the main thing with vitamin D is that manufacturers of supplements and products in general, protein powders, etc., will put it in everything because they can make some nice health claims about it. And so it really is important if you’re taking a stack of different things, even if it’s collagen and a multivitamin and vitamin D and, you know, protein powder, whatever it might be, just check that there’s not vitamin D in absolutely everything that you’re taking because it really can add up and then you can end up in trouble. And and are there any dangers there from I mean obviously there’s dangers from taking too much as we’ve touched on, but are there any dangers from, you know, these food manufacturers, for example, just putting vitamin D in in whatever they like? Presumably it’s it’s regulated. It is regulated. Is it not really? I mean certainly in food products you you you can put it in a food product and it can be then a fortified food but really people can put it in anything. And one of the things that worries me is some of the big supplement manufacturers might sort of have a magnesium and this and that and that and they’ve all got a bit of vitamin D in them and then people are sort of encouraged to take them as a whole stack and then before you know it you’ve ended up having far too much of something like vitamin D. I think it is important to say though, it will be labeled on the pack. So, it’s not like you’re going to be unwittingly taking vitamin D. So, just check the ingredients, check the back label, and you can then add up to see how much you’re getting over a day. And this might sound like a silly question, but hopefully it’s not. Hopefully, people listening to this will be thinking the same thing. You mentioned looking on the the food labels there to see what’s in there. Will it be labeled as vitamin D or will it have one of these quite confusing scientific names where you’re not quite sure is that vitamin D, is that not vitamin D? On the label, it should say vitamin D. But then if you look on the ingredients, it might not say vitamin D. It might say coliferol, which is vitamin D3 basically. Thank goodness that we’re talking about vitamin D and not coal califerol on this podcast because that would be quite difficult for uh for us to say. Now, we are going to reveal some of our very best vitamin D supplements on the market, including our best buys in just a moment. And it is worth remembering that those results are exclusively available for which members. So, if you want to carry on listening and to listen to all of our other member exclusive podcasts and a whole host more benefits, you can sign up to be a Witch member. You just go to witch.co.uk/mpodcast offer. That’s witch.co.uk/mpodcast offer and you can get 50% off an annual membership. So would recommend doing that if you want to find out what some of these best buys are and also get some of that other great stuff that I’ve just touched on. Uh but for everyone else, Shafali, Sophie, thank you very much. Thank you. [Music] Thanks for listening to this podcast from Witch, the UK’s consumer champion. You can find plenty more advice about what we discussed today in the show notes. There you’ll also find a link to become a Witch member for 50% off the usual price, an offer exclusively available to you, our podcast listeners. Joining Witch not only gives you access to our product reviews, our app, one-to-one personalized buying advice, and every issue of Witch magazine across the year, but you’ll also be helping us make life simpler, fairer, and safer for everyone. Don’t forget to hit subscribe wherever you’re listening and that way you’ll be notified whenever we release a new episode of Witch Money, Witch Shorts, or any other podcast that we make for you. 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