Food

There’s Sunshine in Your Cereal – Fortified Cereals with Vitamin D

It’s no secret that Vitamin D is missing at this time of year. Winter days, short on daylight, rob the body of some vitamins needed to absorb other vitamins. Did you know that 85 % of Canadian children do not meet the required daily recommendation for dietary vitamin D? That can wreak havoc on physical and emotional health, which is why fortified cereals matter.

Around here, in this part of Canada, and this family, vitamin D is something we notice when it is missing. My Mom supplemented for years on doctor’s orders. It’s a common theme for many seniors. I myself have supplemented with calcium because I have osteoporosis brought about my medications that treated Crohn’s Disease when younger. I am certain to always add magnesium and vitamin D to the calcium I take. The combination means better absorption. Anyways, my Mom used to note repeatedly how you could tell when there wasn’t enough sun by my mood. (She meant I got grumpy when there was less sun around) I never paid any heed to her comments, until the last couple of years when I realized she was 100 % right. Take the past weekend for instance. Saturday, I had my usual workout and my oldest daughter hit the gym with me, but then noting the melting snow and the beautiful sunny skies we brightened just as the sky did and we spent the morning hiking through the snow on trails near the house where we are planning to move in February. The sun helped drive our mood and dictate energy levels for us on Saturday.

A Little Vitamin D

Shocking to me the change a little vitamin D can make in your life. And yet only 60 % of Canadians get enough Vitamin D – sunshine vitamin. Many don’t realize that along with dropping temperatures and darker days comes dropping vitamin D levels. Now Kellogg’s cereals has added Vitamin D to 13 of their most popular well loved cereals to equal 20 % of Health Canada’s recommended daily intake. Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, Kellogg’s Special K, Kellogg’s Froot Loops, Kellogg’s Mini Wheats Little Bites, Kellogg’s Corn Pops, Kellogg’s Cinammon Pops, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Kellogg’s Crispix Krispies and Kellogg’s Krave are all newly containing sunshine in every bowl.
 
No matter how much time you spend out of doors at this time of year, in Canada, there isn’t a way to obtain enough Vitamin D to reach recommended daily levels. In Canada around the month of November we experience something called Vitamin D Winter. The angle of the sun changes and the UV rays that make Vitamin D don’t reach us. Kellogg’s is the only cereal company in Canada fortifying cereals with Vitamin D.

If You Don’t Get Enough Vitamin D

If Canadians don’t get enough Vitamin D, the calcium levels in their blood can drop. In order to maintain adequate blood calcium levels our bodies can borrow from the bones leaving bones weak and susceptible to rickets and osteoporosis.
Clearly the extra fortfification with Vitamin D is a benefit to many Canadians. People like myself with fragile bones and other health conditions can benefit from being able to steal some of my essential daily dose of Vitamin D from a bowl of our favourite Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, or Kellogg’s Froot Loops. I have noted many times over that our family grew up on Kellogg’s cereals. Luckily this advance makes a difference for my kid’s nutrition. I only wish Kellogg’s cereals had been fortified with Vitamin D when I was a child. I am fully aware of the connection between Vitamin D and diseases like Crohn’s Disease. Very happy to see this being added to foods like Kellogg’s cereals. I received some products from Kellogg’s as part of my affiliation with the brand. My opinion is my own.

Mom of two beautiful active girls, traveller, fitness junkie, social media consultant, and keeper of the sanity.