After decades of being told to avoid the sun by many doctors and
the media, now some leading researchers are telling us just the
opposite!
The problem began back in the 70's when everyone was warned of the
dangers of getting too much sun and then all those 'sun blocker
lotions' hit the market. As a nation, we began to really take all
this to heart and collectively moved from the outdoors into
electronic 'man caves' where we've been lurking ever since. (If you
think I'm wrong, just take a hard look at how pasty white everyone
looks at the local market)! As a result, many of us (especially dark
skinned individuals) are not getting enough vitamin D, a substance
that is now thought to be one of the best
anticancer agents
ever discovered! How bad is it? Well, according to the
Moores
Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD),
some '600,000 cases of breast and colorectal cancers could be
prevented each year if everyone would just maintain effective levels
of vitamin D3'!
So, how's it made (for techno's)?
Although vitamin D is firmly enshrined as one of the four
fat-soluble vitamins, it is not technically a vitamin. True, it’s
essential for health, and only minuscule amounts are required. But it
breaks the other rules for vitamins because it’s produced in the
human body, it’s absent from all natural foods except fish and egg
yolks, and even when it’s obtained from foods, it must be
transformed by the body before it can do any good.
Vitamin D is not one chemical but many. The natural type is
produced in the skin from a universally present form of cholesterol,
7-dehydrocholesterol.
Sunlight is the key: Its
ultraviolet B (UVB)
energy converts the precursor to vitamin D3. In
contrast, most dietary supplements are manufactured by exposing a
plant sterol to ultraviolet energy, thus producing vitamin D2.
Because their function is almost identical, D2 and D3 are lumped
together under the name vitamin D — but neither will function until
the body works its magic (see graphic).
The first stop is in the liver, where vitamin D picks up extra
oxygen and hydrogen molecules to become
25-hydroxyvitamin D,
or 25(OH)D. This is the chemical that doctors should measure to
diagnose vitamin D deficiencies. But although 25(OH)D is used for
diagnosis, it can’t function until it travels to the kidney. There
it acquires a final pair of oxygen and hydrogen molecules to become
1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D; scientists know this active form of
the vitamin as
1,25(OH)2D, or
calcitriol, but for
ordinary folks, like you and me, the name vitamin D is accurate
enough. [
Harvard
Health Publications].
What can be taken away from this last techno-babble is that, absent
your ability to get enough sun, you could take a Vitamin D
supplement! But, be forewarned that this may or may not do as good a
job as the old sol. Even the venerable
Readers
Digest has suggested; '
Get a little sun. Just 10 to
15 minutes of midday sunshine (11 a.m. to 3 p.m.) several days a week
may do the trick (apply sunscreen after those few minutes)'. Sounds
like fine advice to me!
here!
I took a picture from Facebook of two kids standing around a
campfire and thought to make the following statement.
According to the package instructions you preheat an oven to 400°F
and bake them in a shallow pan for 18 to 20 minutes. Easy greasy! I
like to eat my fish with a dab or two of a 'special' sauce.
Interestingly this sauce was being served over 2000 years ago and is
still popular today. The ingredients are mentioned in the collection of ancient
Roman recipes called the Apicius and are a combination of 'liquamen
(Garum), pepper, cayenne, eggs, lemon, olive oil, white wine,
anchovies, onions, tarragon, pickled cucumbers, parsley, chervil,
hard boiled eggs, capers, green peppers and mustard. Give up? We call
it tartar sauce and, like the ancient Romans, I feel it is a must
have addition whenever I eat fish!
