The Red, White, and Green

Photo via Flickr: Acopperpenny

Tell your kids to go play outside. That’s what pediatricians across the country will be saying after reading a new study of over 6,000 children by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, which reveals that a whopping seven out of 10 children are low — some even woefully deficient — in vitamin D, putting them at risk for a host of medical problems, including thyroid disorders, heart disease, and obesity.

Vitamin D, also known as the “sunshine” vitamin because it’s produced by the body when skin comes into contact with the sun, is not actually a vitamin but a hormone that is essential to human health. Very few foods naturally contain vitamin D (oily fish, beef liver, cheese, and egg yolks), which is why milk began being fortified with D in the 1930s to ward off rickets, then a major public health issue in the US. But American children drinking glasses of milk (I still remember those 5 cent cartons in my kindergarten cafeteria) has gone the way of Ovaltine and Bosco. 

The researchers uncovered that 9 percent of the children in the study — equivalent to 7.6 million children nationwide — were vitamin D deficient. Another 61 percent — or 50.8 million — were found to have sub-normal levels. And sedentary lifestyles and increasing uses of technology were cited as factors for the deficiency: Low vitamin D levels were frequently seen in children who spent more than four hours a day watching TV, playing video games, or using computers.

I have a bad feeling that once companies like Kraft and Kellogg catch drift of this study, we’re going to start seeing vitamin D-fortified Velveeta and Pop-Tarts. But I hope for some, this will be a wake-up call that we need to start heeding the sage advice of our grandparents: regular meals, eight hours of sleep a night, and daily exercise in the fresh air and sunshine. It’s not that complicated. 

Click here to read more about the study.

–Jennifer Grayson

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