Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

[Chicklady]

I can't seem to get accurate info on vitamin D in foods from the USDA website, so I went to a Canadian one http://cpe0013211b4c6d-cm0014e88ee7a...language=en_CA
They have vitamin D listed in a measure that looked somewhat like ug except the tail on the U was on the left side. Does anyone know what that means? Vitamin D here is measure in IU (international units)
Thanks!!

[liv]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

We are kind of metric here
µg stands for microgram or 1/1,000,000 of a gram

[Chicklady]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

Thank you liv!! I see you even have it on your keyboard

[sadie147]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

From what I know vitamin d is what we get from sunshine mostly (conversion of uv rays i think), and not food, which is why you're supposed to suppliment with it during the winter due to lack of sun we get. I know they put some in fortified milk, or dairy products, but it's not enough.

1 take 2x1000 (iu's?) per day in a suppliment.

I'm going to move this to the vitanutrients forum, and leave a redirect so that Biogeek can see it...she's our resident vitamin guru!

[Chicklady]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

My outlook is that if a God/Mother Nature/Evolution intended us to have a certain amount of Vitamin D, it is available to us somehow that precludes popping pills. I am curious as to what foods Biogeek comes up with. I already know I can get more than enough from herring, canned salmon, caviar and such----I'm just OD'd on those!!!

[sadie147]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

Here is a good article I found: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...itamin-d_x.htm

It also has a list of foods.

[Chicklady]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

Here is a good article I found: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/...itamin-d_x.htm

It also has a list of foods.

Nice list (except for the fortified milk and margarine) Again I bring up the question---why only tuna in oil but not tuna in water? Most all are canned in soybean oil, which has no D in and of itself. And I still can't find an answer to my Cod and mushroom question (different thread) why raw and canned, but not cooked?

[Chicklady]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

PS. I went and sat in the sun for a whopping 5 minutes today----it's cold on bare skin!!

[biogeek]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

My outlook is that if a God/Mother Nature/Evolution intended us to have a certain amount of Vitamin D, it is available to us somehow that precludes popping pills. I am curious as to what foods Biogeek comes up with. I already know I can get more than enough from herring, canned salmon, caviar and such----I'm just OD'd on those!!!

You seem to have a pretty good idea of what you wish to consume and which to avoid, so I'm not certain what else you would like from me. Since you're into the natural route, there are many good books out there based on natural, non-processed foods to help you select the right foods.

I have not seen your question yet regarding cod oil, so I'll search for it and answer it at that thread. Ditto with the mushrooms.

As far as why tuna in oil has vitamin d while tuna packed in water does not, I will have to look that up. I recall learning about that in class, but alas the particulars of that knowledge has left me.

You CAN get too much vitamin d, even without "popping a pill," so if you tend to eat a lot of vitamin d rich foods often (especially cod liver oil), you may wish to keep track of your intake. However, eating foods with a lot of phosphorous/phosphoric acid/caffeine will also reduce vitamin d absorption, so that must be taken into account as well.

FYI: the tolerable upper intake levels for adults are 50 micrograms/day which is the same as 2000 IU. However, I'm waiting for a new article to be published just on this vitamin d topic. Here's a link to what should be in the article... http://vitamindandhealth.od.nih.gov/

[Chicklady]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

Biogeek---I haven't done cod liver oil since the days my mom forced us to take it, ewwwww! It's the raw cod versus cooked cod that I questioned. Just doesn't make sense to me, and I must not be a good googler, because I've come up with no possible explanations.

[biogeek]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

I personally cannot stomach cod liver oil in its liquid form, so I take it as a capsule.

Couldn't find your original question regarding cod, so I will try to answer your question as posted above. The cod liver oil itself is very perishable. It can go rancid rather quickly and is also sensitive to heat. So oil that has been processed with heat is a waste of money. Also, if you try to use the oil in cooking or simplying pouring/mixing it into hot food will also denature the fatty acids that's we want in the fish oil.

Hope this answers your question. If not, just reply back.

[Chicklady]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

*giggle* Ok, I don't remember asking anything about cod liver oil, but my question about cod was why does it have vitamon D when raw but not when cooked. Smae with mushrooms. However, I know it's not destroyed by heat, because both have vitamin D canned, and they raise the temp quite high in canning.

[biogeek]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

Well, I guess we have a failure to communicate here!

I still stand by my above statement when it comes to denaturing the fatty acids with heat. However, you wish to know about vitamin D & heat. Here's a science article that addresses part of your question. If you live in a town with a large university, they most likely have this journal. (Can't really say about the small colleges though)

Here's the info and the abstract:
Effect of Household Cooking on the Vitamin D content in Fish, Eggs, and Wild Mushrooms


Pirjo Mattila, Riitta Ronkainen, Kaisa Lehikoinen and Vieno Piironen
Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Food Research L-talo, 31600, Jokioinen, Finland
Department of Applied Chemistry and Microbiology, University of Helsinki, 27, FIN-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland


Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, Vol 12, Issue 3, September 1999, pp153-160.
Abstract

The retentions of cholecalciferol in fish and egg yolk, 25-hydroxycholecalciferol in egg yolk, and ergocalciferol in wild mushrooms after normal household cooking were studied. The fish samples were baked at 172 or 200°C for 20 min, the egg yolk samples were cooked in boiling water for 10 min, and mushroom samples were fried in a hot pan for 5 min. In addition, the storage stabilities of cholecalciferol and 25-hydroxycholecalciferol in egg yolk and ergocalciferol in mushrooms were tested. The vitamin D compounds were determined from the raw material reference (control sample), and from processed and stored samples using a high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method with an internal standard. Fat content in the fish samples and dry matter content in all samples were also analyzed. In general, the losses of vitamin D compounds were <10%, hence, household cooking would seem not to lessen intake of vitamin D from foods.

[Chicklady]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

Thanks biogeek---sort of ----what you found seems to agree with my belief that vitamin D isn't destroyed (or at least signigicantly) by heat. I can only guess that the USDA didn't test for D in home cooked items then. Nothing else makes sense. Of course, that also makes me question the accuracy of all their numbers
BTW, I live in something not large enough to be considered a town, never mind having a large university

[Chicklady]

Re: Any Canadians here? I need explanation please

Oh---as far as rancid fatty acids----cod liver oil smells so vile, how would one tell
My flaxseed oil also says it shouldn't be exposed to heat, so I'm guessing when we cook with flax seeds (like those muffins) we're actaully destroying those O3's....or at least some of them.