Blog
Additional vitamin D
in Limax mushrooms
Many people in the Netherlands suffer from a serious vitamin D deficiency, even though they may not be aware of it. For example, no fewer than 40% of women over the age of fifty suffer this deficiency. The deficiency is more prominent among men over the age of seventy. In addition to the elderly, young children, pregnant women and people with dark skin are also at greater risk of consuming too little vitamin D. A vitamin D deficiency may prove highly detrimental in the long term: our bodies desperately need vitamin D for strong bones and teeth. In addition, this crucial vitamin boosts our immune system and reduces the risk of infections. If your body is systematically exposed to a vitamin D deficiency, it can even cause osteoporosis or rickets. [source: Netherlands Nutrition Centre]
Reduced levels of Vitamin D in winter
Vitamin D is the only vitamin that the body can produce itself. The human skin actually produces vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. While this generally poses no problem to most people during the summer, it can prove an entirely different matter in winter. The Netherlands has only five months a year in which the sun shines brightly enough for our bodies to absorb vitamin D. As the strength of the sun is weaker during the remaining seven months, it does not provide us with sufficient vitamin D, so that many people suffer a deficiency.
This deficiency naturally has to be supplemented therefore. Numerous supplements are available with which to redress the balance of vitamin D. But why take supplements or tablets, if you can also get vitamin D from food? Did you know that mushrooms, similarly to humans and animals, can absorb vitamin D from sunlight? This is due to the fact that mushrooms contain a natural form of provitamin D2 (ergosterol), which can be converted into vitamin D through exposure to sunlight.
Additional vitamin D in mushrooms? We put it there!
Now, of course, you are wondering how we ensure that mushrooms produce natural vitamin D. It is actually very simple: By imitating nature and briefly irradiating the mushrooms with UV light after harvesting, we let the mushrooms do all the hard work. As the mushrooms are exposed to UV light, they can absorb vitamin D themselves, in much the same way as we humans do through our skin. The mushrooms therefore produce additional nutrients, without being given any additive or injection!
It is not without good reason that we call our mushrooms our vitality boosters. Mushrooms are naturally packed with all kinds of extremely healthy vitamins and minerals. However, our vitamin D mushrooms are even more worthy of the name. The vitamin D from our mushrooms is best absorbed by the body if there is also fat or oil present. Fry our vitamin D mushrooms in a little olive oil or margarine, for example, to enjoy all the benefits they offer to the fullest. Eating around 100 grams of mushrooms is sufficient to acquire your recommended daily intake of vitamin D.
The ultimate treat as well as a boost to your health? Who wouldn’t want that!?
