Vitamin D in Milk

A little vitamin D is added to milk.  Drinking 3 glasses of milk daily nearly meets the old standard of 400 IU daily, but 16 glasses of milk – a whole gallon daily would be needed to meet the new standard of 2000 IU daily.

Unfortunately, there is little monitoring of the actual amount of Vitamin D in “Vitamin D Fortified Milk”.  A small study of milk in the Washington, DC area in 2007 showed that only 40% of milk purchased in local stores had the correct amount to meet the government standard of 125 IU in 8oz of milk.  Vitamin D can break down if exposed to direct light through a clear container.  Perhaps sometimes not enough is added to the milk during processing.

The message is that you will not get enough Vitamin D from milk alone.  Clearly the vile tasting old home remedy of Cod Liver Oil is needed in addition to milk.  Unfortunately most fish oil sold today has Omega 3 but not Vitamin D.  Unless you stored up a huge amount of Vitamin D from Sunshine in the summer, you are probably quite low now.

The only sure way to know your Vitamin D status is to Test for Vitamin D Level.

Jay Ginther, MD

2008 / Revised Feb 2011

Categorised in: Nutrition