There’s an increasing body of evidence to suggest that if we are *vitamin D deficient we have a greater chance of catching several infectious diseases, and we’re likely to suffer worse symptoms if we do get them. It’s not too difficult to keep your vitamin D levels up in the summer if you can get plenty of your skin surface area out into the sunshine for just 10 minutes (if you are fair skinned) and 30 minutes (if you have dark skin), but in the winter you’ll need longer because not only is sunlight weaker and scarcer but you probably don’t want to be strolling around the park in your shorts and sleeveless top when the temperature is in single figures. With Covid 19 restrictions on travel even those of you who could afford to probably can’t fly off to warmer climes to escape the northern European winter, so we’re all going to need to boost our vitamin D intake by adjusting our diet.

I went out for a walk/run this morning, and there was a little feeble sunshine between the clouds, but probably not enough to boost the vitamin D levels even of this pale pink human, so I came home and made scrambled eggs with chopped smoked salmon (2 eggs, 2 slices of salmon). The kosher (Manchester Beth Din) smoked salmon from Steve Hatt is my absolute favourite; tasty and not too salty. Egg yolks and salmon (as well as other oily fish) are both good sources of Vit D and considerably cheaper than a flight to the Caribbean.

The best natural source of vitamin D for you vegans is probably mushrooms, but they need to have been grown in sunlight, not indoors.

Small edit to this post: I ended my eating day by adding Vitamin D boosting mushrooms to the Stir Fry Recipe which will also support my immune system by adding variety to my Elder Microbiome. You’re welcome.

*Nerds who want some of the science on this might want to start with The Lancet review of Vitamin D and Covid research Volume 8, ISSUE 7 July 01, 2020 and Tim Spector’s book, Spoonfed.