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Vitamin D content of food and its contribution to vitamin D status: a brief overview and Australian focus

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Abstract

There are only a few natural foods that contain nutritionally significant quantities of vitamin D. These include egg yolk, some fatty fish, and in much lower concentrations, meat. The published values of the vitamin D content of food are summarised here and their contribution to dietary vitamin D intake is discussed, with particular reference to Australia. Dietary vitamin D is unlikely to reach the level recommended by the US Institute of Medicine. It is therefore concluded that dietary vitamin D will only be a component of vitamin D supply, with UV exposure and/or oral supplements continuing to be the main sources of vitamin D to maintain adequate status.

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  1. Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Jerry Liu

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  1. Jerry Liu
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Correspondence to Jerry Liu.

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Liu, J. Vitamin D content of food and its contribution to vitamin D status: a brief overview and Australian focus. Photochem Photobiol Sci 11, 1802–1807 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1039/c2pp25150g

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