Vitamin D and PERFORMANCE

[SadieKate]

I prefer getting my vitamin D the old-fashioned way.

And sometimes you need both. I get lots and lots of sun. Have my whole life. And my skin shows it.

[Biciclista]

yes, that's one of the points of the article; even a lot of people who spend most of their life on the beach, etc, are not getting enough Vit D. so they are suggesting getting your levels checked.

[Dianyla]

I think there's really something to this. A few days ago I saw this same topic of vitamin D and athletic performance mentioned in the NY Times. It's been on my mind all week because it seems to explain something I've observed about myself recently.

This past summer, I've felt a distinct increase in my cardiovascular performance and found that I'm responding a lot better to strenuous exercise. I've especially noticed a difference hiking at high altitude. I was trying to figure out why this might be. I have lost some excess body fat this year, but I've been thinner before and it honestly didn't make that much difference in the past. I'm still struggling with the constant borderline low iron, so that hasn't changed. I'm still living a fairly sedentary life in between going out and doing weekend-warrior epic feats. This past February my doc tested my vitamin D and I was quite deficient, even though I'd been taking cod liver oil for several months. I've been taking 6,000 IU daily since then, and I really think this is why I've been performing so much better.

I had already been taking cod liver oil for the essential fatty acid benefits. Nowadays you can get cod liver oil that's been molecularly distilled. This removes the fishy flavor and also ensures that you're not getting a side helping of mercury and PCBs with your vitamins. Look for Carlson's or Nordic Naturals brands, you can find them at Whole Paycheck, etc. Cheap cod liver oil is fishy, high quality purified cod liver oil is not. You can even get strawberry/peach/lemon flavors. I mainly take this for the EFAs, since there's only something like 500-1000 IU of vitamin D per dose. After being diagnosed as deficient, I added Carlson's D Drops to my daily supplement routine. It's the animal form of D which is best absorbed, and it's easy to take as each drop contains 2,000 IU and it's basically flavorless.

And I can actually envision eating fish livers, as well as the livers of all kinds of animals. Native peoples have always eaten the whole animal. This trend of cherry-picking just the prime muscle meat cuts from an animal and not eating the rest of it is a very modern practice. Besides, ankimo is so tasty!