Do you need vitamin D?

Here’s everything you need to know about the essential micronutrient vitamin D and how it can help you reach your better-body goal

Vit-D3 is one of the launch products in the New Body Plan sports nutrition range, which has been specially created to help you achieve your body-composition goals faster. Increasing your levels of vitamin D, an essential micronutrient, can have big benefits on your health, fitness and sense of well-being, and each serving of Vit-D3 contains 2000 international units of easily-absorbed vitamin D. Here’s why Vit-D3 will help you build a stronger, leaner and fitter body.

What is vitamin D?

Vitamin D is one of the 24 essential micronutrients that we need to survive. It’s sometimes known as the “sunshine vitamin” because our bodies manufacture it through sun exposure on our skin, but it’s not technically a vitamin; it acts more like a hormone. While you don’t really need to worry about that, you do need to ensure you’re getting enough of it to avoid a health-damaging deficiency.

What does vitamin D do?

Vitamin D plays a major role in many biological processes, including managing calcium levels and improving bone health, strengthening the immune system, regulating metabolism, improving cognition and brain health, and improving mood and well-being, amongst many other health-boosting benefits.

How do I increase my levels of vitamin D?

Sun exposure is the main method of increasing vitamin D levels because unlike almost every other essential micronutrient it’s not found naturally in many foods: eggs and fatty fish are among the few, yet many products, including bread, cereals and milk, are “fortified” with added vitamin D. It is recommended that we get as much of our daily vitamin D needs from our diet to avoid the damaging effects of too much sun exposure and because in many parts of the world there’s not enough direct sunlight year-round for our bodies to make it. That’s why supplementation can be so beneficial.

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Should I take a vitamin D supplement?

If you live in the UK, or other higher-latitude parts of the northern hemisphere, then the chances are you may be vitamin D deficient: one study found more than 50% of the UK adult population have sub-optimal levels due to a lack of sunlight. Taking the Vit-D3 supplement can raise levels to within the acceptable range, and studies also suggest that people deficient in vitamin D may experience decreased levels of testosterone, the primary male sex hormone, after supplementation.

What is Vit-D3 and why’s it called that?

It’s a great question! Vitamin D isn’t actually a single nutrient; it’s a group of slightly different but closely related compounds. Of this family the two most important for us are known as D2 (or ergocalciferol) and D3 (or cholecaliferol), and D3 is the best form for supplementation because it’s more easily absorbed and utilised by the body. That’s why we use in Vit-D3 and how the product got its name!

How do I take vitamin D?

Vitamin D is known as a “fat-soluble” vitamin, which means it needs to be consumed in the presence of dietary fat to be properly absorbed. That’s why we recommend taking each one-tablet serving of Vit-D3 with a meal or snack that contains fat, such as eggs, nuts, avocado or fatty fish. Each bottle of Vit-D3 contains 30 servings, and you get two bottles, so 60 servings, with your “supplement stack” that comes as part of your personalised New Body Plan Plus eight-week training and nutrition programme.

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