Marcia Wood
Agricultural Research Service
Low vitamin D levels among young African-Americans participating in a recent study were more common than in several previous investigations, university and Agricultural Research Service (ARS) nutrition experts have found.
The vitamin is essential for strong bones and a robust immune system, according to the study's lead author, immunologist Charles B. Stephensen.
He works at the ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center, located at the University of California, Davis. Stephensen and his co-investigators have reported their findings in the current issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The scientists based their conclusion on levels of a form of vitamin D in the blood (plasma) of 359 volunteers, aged 15 to 19, tested at sites in 14 American cities. Volunteers were predominantly female African-Americans. Researchers found that 87 percent of the volunteers had an insufficient amount of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in their plasma.
Good sources of the nutrient include vitamin D-fortified milk, fatty fish and sunshine, which a natural chemical in skin converts to a form of the nutrient called previtamin D3.
