HOME MADE VITAMIN D!

Mushrooms do more than top pizza: they are a valuable source of a vitamin we all need, especially during these short winter days. That’s because the sun is our main source of vitamin D. you will find the vitamin in a few fortified foods, like milk and OJ. And it’s naturally in mushrooms and certain wild-caught fish, such as salmon and mackerel, but there aren’t many D-rich foods. As a result, 80% of the U.S. population has seasonal vitamin D deficiency, says Michael Holick, Ph., M.D., who heads the Vitamin D, Skin and Bone Research Laboratory at Boston University’s School of Medicine. Mushrooms – like our skin – make D when exposed to sunlight. That’s why wild mushrooms are high in the vitamin. Commercial mushrooms are typically grown in the dark, but some growers have started exposing them to UV light – see next page. (UV-exposed mushrooms have some mention of vitamin D on the label.) You can fortify your own fungi by sunning mushrooms on a windowsill (chop them for maximum surface exposure). One cup (about 3 ounces) of sliced white button mushrooms exposed for an hour between noon and 2 p.m. will end up with approximately 400 IU of vitamin D, according to Holick, who is developing an app to help people make their own D-rich mushrooms (vitdcalculator.com). Happily, a recent study co-authored by Holick found that eating light-treated mushrooms maintains desirable D levels just as well as supplements or sunshine. That makes this tasty fungi a great – and the only natural and vegan – food source of D. – Anne Bliss To find more information about Vitamin D in mushrooms go to eatingwell.com or purchase the magazine issue for January/February 2014. P.S. There was a warning post on every single news station about counterfeit cosmetics causing threat to health. We buy only American and only through authorized dealers. I did a lot of studying on regulation regarding cosmetics in different parts of the world, and even if our regulations are not that perfect accordingly to environmental agencies, they are still the best ones in the world. Plus, American somehow manage to bring any recipe to “result perfection”. Support American economy – buy American! May we all prosper in 2014!