The body's needs change with each season. What are the best supplements to take in the summer? It's as simple as vitamins A, C, D, and E.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A is especially important during the summer months. Bright sunlight can damage your eyes, and vitamin A provides extra protection. In fact, vitamin A is essential for your vision. It also helps protect your skin. Vitamin A is most easily absorbed in preformed vitamin A, which contains retinyl acetate or retinyl palmitate, as well as provitamin A, also known as beta-carotene. You can find supplements that contain one or both sources.
Read more here about which vitamins you should take and when.
Vitamins C and E
Vitamins C and E are essential during the summer months. Outdoor activities lead to increased exposure to free radicals, including ultraviolet light and air pollution. Free radicals can damage the skin, cause premature aging, and create inflammation. Vitamins C and E are powerful antioxidants that work to eliminate free radicals and toxins. These vitamins have a soothing effect on the skin. In addition, vitamin C gives the immune system a boost, helping to fight summer allergies and sinusitis.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is produced when our bare skin is exposed to sunlight. Ten to fifteen minutes of sun exposure is needed each day to achieve the levels of vitamin D that our bodies need. Trying to protect our skin from harmful rays with overuse of sunscreen can prevent absorption from the sun. In addition, the strength of the sun varies by geographical location, time of day, and even pollution in the air.
There are two types of vitamin D. D2, or ergocalciferol, which occurs in plants, and vitamin D3, or cholecalciferol, which occurs in animal sources. Aarja Health's Premium Vitamin D3 4000 is a super chewable tablet that gets its great taste from Nordic cranberries and xylitol. One every other day is all you need.
Vitamin-rich foods
This summer, fill your plate with foods rich in vitamins, including A, C, E, and D. Vitamin A is naturally found in orange vegetables and fruits like carrots, sweet potatoes, mangoes, papayas, cantaloupe, apricots, and nectarines. You can also find it in watermelon and pink or red grapefruit. Leafy greens like Swiss chard, spinach, and romaine lettuce are also excellent sources. Liver, salmon, mackerel, and tuna are great animal sources to fill your plate with.
Start your day with a glass of vitamin C-rich orange juice. Red peppers, tomatoes, strawberries, and green foods like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and kiwi are all rich sources of vitamin C.
Looking to add more vitamin E to your diet? Nuts and seeds are packed with vitamin E. Sunflower seeds rank number one, with 35mg of vitamin E per 100 grams. Almonds contain 26mg, hazelnuts 15mg, and Brazil nuts 5.7mg.
Both farmed and wild salmon are excellent sources of vitamin D3. Farmed salmon contains 526 IU per 100 grams, while wild salmon contains between 556-924 IU.
Other animal sources of vitamin D include halibut, mackerel, herring, sardines, egg yolks, and cod liver oil. Vitamin D2 is found in wild mushrooms and some types you can buy in the store. However, most mushrooms you find in stores are grown in the dark and therefore do not contain the vitamin source.
Enjoy this summer with vitamins A, C, D and E.
