Hi, this is Monica Reinagel, the nutrition diva, here with your quick and dirty tips for eating well and feeling fabulous.

Annie, from my hometown of Buffalo, New York wrote with questions about Vitamin D.

She writes, my doctor, my mom, and various magazines are all touting the benefits of

Vitamin D for bone health, for cancer prevention, mood boosting, weight loss, even cold and flu prevention.

Is this just hype or is there some truth to this?

You're absolutely right Annie, Vitamin D is very hot right now. Up until recently, Vitamin D's big claim to

fame was that it prevented rickets. It's a serious bone deformity that used to affect kids

and babies fairly frequently, because Vitamin D is not widespread in the food supply. kids and

because vitamin D is not widespread in the food supply

health authorities in the US decided way back in 1932

that all milk should be fortified with vitamin D

in order to prevent rickets.

And that's pretty much the last anybody thought about it.

We may really have underestimated the importance of this vitamin.

Over the last few years,

researchers have noticed two things.

One, people who have heart disease, diabetes, depression,

various autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis, lots of types of cancer, even obesity, all of them also seem to be low in

Vitamin D.

The second big news flash is that lots of us, even most of us, are deficient in the

vitamin. Just last month, a new report found that seven Most of us are deficient in the Vitamin.

Just last month, a new report found that 7 out of 10 American children,

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