3 Vitamin D Benefits You Should Know

Here are 3 vitamin D benefits you need to know about—including ways to get more of the vitamin in your daily diet.

1. Vitamin D can help strengthen muscles 

Along with its bone-building abilities, vitamin D is also influential in strengthening muscles. Vitamin D may help increase muscle strength thus preventing falls, which is a common problem that leads to substantial disability and death in older adults.

2. Vitamin D can help prevent Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes 

While studies are not conclusive, vitamin D may be helpful for preventing both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, says Newgent. One such study, published in 2006 in the journal Diabetes Care, found that while vitamin D on its own did not effectively lower the risk of an overabundance of sugar in the blood, a combined daily intake of >1,200 mg calcium and >800 IU vitamin D could effectively lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.

3. Vitamin D can help you lose weight 

Dr. Boyd points out that obesity is a known risk factor for low vitamin D levels—which means more vitamin D may help with weight loss. One 2009 study in the British Journal of Nutrition found that, in overweight or obese women with low calcium levels, those who took a daily dose of calcium paired with vitamin D were more successful shedding pounds than those who took a placebo supplement, due to an "appetite-suppressing effect" of the combination.

If you find out you are deficient or lacking in vitamin D intake, there are a few key ways you can up your daily dosage—staring with getting around 20 minutes of sunlight several times a week, according to Newgent. "The major cause of vitamin D deficiency is inadequate exposure to sunlight, an increasing feature in modern life," says Dr. Boyd.

VITAMINS, MINERALS, FIBER, GOOD FATS AND PROTEIN WILL HELP YOU STAY HEALTHY. Buy your healthy meal plans here