Taking vitamin D without fat? You might just be wasting it, warns doctor

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that helps maintain healthy teeth, bones, and muscles. Most of the vitamin D our bodies need comes from exposure to sunlight. However, obtaining vitamin D this way is incredibly difficult during fall and winter.

For this reason, doctors recommend a daily vitamin D intake to maintain its proper level during this sun-deprived period. However, many of us might take this supplement incorrectly, nullifying its benefits.

Since Vitamin D is fat-soluble, it's best absorbed when ingested with food that contains fats.

If no food contains fat in the intestines, vitamin D will be expelled from the body. This is why it's beneficial to consume it with fatty foods. It would be good to eat foods that contain both fat and naturally occurring vitamin D, like cod liver oil, fatty fish, butter, and egg yolks. It's recommended to have at least two servings of vitamin D-rich food daily, supplementing its level with vitamin D capsules, suggested Dr. Joshua Berkowitz to Express.co.uk.

A deficiency in vitamin D can trigger a wide array of symptoms, including persistent fatigue, frequent coughs and colds, low mood, seasonal affective disorder, anxiety, depression, nonspecific muscle and joint pain, slow recovery from illness and wounds, and even hair loss.

If children are deficient in vitamin D, their bones may be soft, resulting in rickets. In adults, osteopenia and osteoporosis can occur due to a low level of vitamin D. It plays a critical role in calcium absorption in the intestines, which is essential for maintaining healthy bones and preventing and slowing the development of these diseases, added Dr. Joshua Berkowitz.