How much vitamin D do I need?

Unfortunately this isn’t a straight forward question.  There is a wide range of recommendations

The Nutrient Reference Values for New Zealand are:

The Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) have the following recommendations for Vitamin D intake.

Note that these are considerably higher than the recommendations above.

The New Zealand and the FNB’s recommendations are to achieve a 25(OH)D level of 50 nmol/L.
Many experts have publically criticised these recommendations.  My personal belief is that these recommendations will increase dramatically over the next couple of years to be more in line with current research that shows the beneftis of higher levels of vitamin D.

Dr Mercola – Who has one of the largest health websites has the following vitamin D intake recommendations.  Dr Mercola goes into detail on his site to justify these levels.  These are around 10x higher than the recommendations above!

The Weston A Price Foundation – an organisation that provides health and nutrition education, recommendations are:

Putting all this information shows the large variety in recommendations.  It’s also important to note that the amount of vitamin D required for the individual will vary depending on their vitamin D status – which can only be determined by a 25(OH)D test – see this article.  Illness and medical conditions can also increase the vitamin D requirement.

In my opinion the New Zealand, and FNBs recommendations are far too low.  If I’m asked to quote numbers my recommended intakes would be:

Children <12 yrs 2000 – 3000 IU/day

Adults 3000-4000 IU/day

Pregnant and nursing women 5000 IU/day

If we assume that fermented cod liver oil carries 400 IU/ml.

• ½ tsp (2.5 ml) = 1000 IU – my recommendation for children <12yr
• 1 tsp (5 ml) = 2000 IU – my recommended dosage for over 12 yrs
• 1.5 tsp (7.5ml) = 3000 IU – my recommended dosage for pregnant or lactating women
• Note that 2 x capsules = 1ml or 400 IU