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Eating a variety of healthy foods is important for everyone’s overall health and wellbeing.
Whilst there is no specific food or supplement that can prevent you from catching Coronavirus, eating a well-balanced diet can help boost your immune system to fight infections if you’re healthy.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body. These nutrients are needed to keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy.
A lack of vitamin D can lead to bone deformities such as rickets in children, and bone pain caused by a condition called osteomalacia in adults.
Consider taking 10 micrograms of vitamin D a day to keep your bones and muscles healthy. This is because you may not be getting enough vitamin D from sunlight if you’re indoors most of the day.
Good sources of vitamin D
From about late March/early April to the end of September, most people should be able to get all the vitamin D they need from sunlight. The body creates vitamin D from direct sunlight on the skin when outdoors. But between October and early March we do not get enough vitamin D from sunlight.
Read more about vitamin D and sunlight.
Vitamin D is also found in a small number of foods. Sources include:
- oily fish – such as salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel
- red meat
- liver
- egg yolks
- fortified foods – such as most fat spreads and some breakfast cereals
Another source of vitamin D is dietary supplements.
For more information on how to eat a balanced diet, view the Eatwell guide below:
