ALARM: We are getting far too little vitamin D

The recommended dietary intake of vitamin D in the UK is 17 times lower that it should ideally be in order to provide sufficient protection against disease. That is what two teams of US scientists have concluded independently of each other.

It is hardly a coincidence that so many of us contract virus infections in the course of the winter. It is because we lack vitamin D, which we are unable to synthesize when the sun sits too low in the sky. Danish scientists have discovered how vitamin D activates the immune system, and a comprehensive meta-analysis shows how vitamin D supplements can prevent colds, flus, and related complications.