I have been told my vitamin D level are low. Low like 9 and its suppose to be at least 50. I know it’s a big difference. An as I’m a black person living in the non sunny of uk I knew my levels would be low but not so low.

I don’t eat meat or fish.

I don’t call my self the common names, as I’m fed up of labelling everything I or we do in nowadays. I don’t like being pigeon holed.

I chose to not eat meat, fish and dairy products. Sometimes I will have bit of cheese or eggs but its a choice in that moment.

With that said with my vitamin d levels low I wanted to see if I can naturally increase the levels without medication. You can read all about that here.

The first 5 I find about increasing vitamin d are as follows:

Get sunlight exposure

This is a certain method of raising vitamin D levels!

But if you are like me and live in the uk its not going to be possible. As of writing this it’s March 2024 and the sunshine is not visiting today, an has not for a good while. I cannot wait till May June July to start sunbathing in my garden. So this option unfortunately is not the way I can depend upon.

Consume egg yolks

I can eat eggs, I don’t do it often but to increase my levels I will plan on doing so. 2 eggs can help increase the vitamin d levels.

Eat more mushrooms

I eat mushrooms already. However from research I have found that mushrooms grown in the wild have a higher degree of vitamin D. Those sold in supermarkets, which is the most convenient way to get mushrooms, will have very little vitamin d as they are commercially grown in the dark.

I tell you what, you can learn alot when you need to dig deep on a subject. It’s so interesting.

So if I knew this an had wild mushrooms every time I ate mushrooms I may have avoided having such low vitamin d levels.

Which mushrooms have the highest vitamin D?
Our Shiitake has the most Vitamin D. amount of Vitamin D. to ultraviolet light, it has 1,110 IU/87g. This is from a company in Japan.

I cannot get mushrooms from there so I need mushrooms closer to home.

Chanterelles and morels mushrooms are our next go to but again not readily available in the supermarkets.

As of writing this post I went shopping and found vitamin D enriched chestnut mushrooms in Morrison.

I tell you this I always find what I want when it’s needed.

I have never seen these before & I shop at Morrison often.

This is what it says on the packaging: UV treated chestnut mushrooms, high in vitamin D. UV-treated mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus), a controlled light treatment was used to increase vitamin D levels.

Consume fatty fish and seafood

Oily fish include small ones like sardines, herring and anchovies. Bigger ones such as salmon, trout, tuna, swordfish and mackerel.

I don’t eat fish but if I don’t think me eating mushrooms alot is a good thing to do. I still want a balanced eating lifestyle. So maybe I’ll include a little mackerel until the medication starts working. As I can easily stop eating the fish.

Yes for me it would be mackerel as the chosen fish. It is one of 3 fish that has the highest amount of vitamin d but only when fresh and not tinned.

Eat fortified foods

Fortified foods don’t naturally include vitamin d and other nutrients. They are added back in via the manufacture process. These foods can include breakfast cereals, bread, flour, margarine, salt, snack bars, dairy and milk and plant-based milk alternatives, juices.

What I have gotten from this, is it is possible to increase my levels.

From the foods above I’m looking at a kings lunch that will have all the vitamin d compound from the various foods.

2 eggs, mushrooms, mackerels.

Its weird when starting my transition from eating meat to just eating fish my lunch daily was what I mentioned above.

Sometimes I would swap the mackerel for a kipper.

I am hopeful that i will get my levels back up soon.

I will keep you posted on what’s happening.

If you are going through the same do share in the comments.