The Vitamin D Dilemma & Why Mushrooms

Do you have enough vitamin D? What’s enough? How do you know if you are getting enough vitamin D? What’s the big deal if you don’t have enough?

As vitamin D continues to gain momentum and attention with the media, medical associations and Americans alike, these are common questions we’re hearing. And, if you’re asking yourself any of these, you’re not alone. An emerging body of science, including laboratory, animal and epidemiological studies, suggests that higher intakes of vitamin D may be protective against some cancers, including pancreatic, breast, colon and colorectal cancers.*** In fact, the Institute of Medicine has convened a committee to evaluate the current daily recommendation of 400 IU of vitamin D, to see if it should be increased based on further review . If you don’t know your vitamin D blood level, contact your doctor.

The mushroom industry is continuing to learn more about the vitamin D found naturally in all varieties of mushrooms. A recent review of several mushroom varieties across America found that all mushrooms could have anywhere from 4 to 400 percent of the Daily Value of vitamin D. The unique vegetable contains ergosterol-a plant sterol-that is converted to vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. According to experts, this process is similar to how humans convert sunlight to vitamin D in the body. An easy way to remember the Daily Value of vitamin D found in white button mushrooms is that 1 mushroom equals about 1 percent of the Daily Value for adults. In other words, 10 mushrooms would be 10 percent of the Daily Value.

So, we want to know: do you know your vitamin D levels? What are you doing to make sure you and your family are getting enough?

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1. Skinner HG, Michaud DS, Giovannucci E, Willett WC, et al. Vitamin D intake and the risk for pancreatic cancer in two cohort studies. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006;15(9):1688-1695.
2. Giovannucci E, Liu Y, Rimm EB, Hollis BW, et al. Prospective study of predictors of vitamin D status and cancer incidence and mortality in men. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006;98:451-9.
3. Spina CS, et al. Vitamin D and cancer. Anticancer Res. 2006;26(4A):2515-24.
4. Palmieri C, MacGregor T, Girgis S, Vigushin D. Serum 25 hydroxyvitamin D levels in early and advanced breast cancer. J Clin Pathol.2006; online edition: http://jcp.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/59/12/1334

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 7:31 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.