Vitamin D intake levels officially rise

The U.S. government panel in charge of setting recommended daily intake levels for vitamins today announced a large increase of vitamin D for all populations in North America.

Specifically, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report advocated a doubling of vitamin D intake for infants (to 400 IU), a tripling of vitamin D intake for those between ages 1 and 50 (to 600 IU), a 50 percent hike in those ages 51 to 70 (to 600 IU), and a 33 percent increase for those older than 71 years old (to 800 IU).

Not that you would know it from mainstream media reports. The New York Times, for instance, had the headline: "Report Questions Need for 2 Diet Supplements."

CBS News headlined their piece, "Vitamin D Report Shocker: High Doses Unnecessary, Risky."  This, despite the fact the IOM panel doubled the upper safety level, to 4,000 IU/day.

"This is hardly investigative journalism," said Robert Heaney, MD, a vitamin D researcher at Creighton University in Nebraska who was not part of the panel this time, though he was when the panel last issued recommendations, in 1997. "But the media is just parroting what the report says. The principal casualty of this is the credibility of the IOM – there were no day-to-day vitamin D scientists on the panel, and the working vitamin D community says they're off base."

The committee reviewed about 1,000 published studies, and did conclude that vitamin D along with calcium are vital for maintaining bone health. But they said the jury is out on other health effects. Access the report.

"This is likely to stir things up a bit," said Anthony Almada, president of nutrition consultancy GenR8. "The IOM did increase the vitamin D RDI by 50 percent!"

On calcium, the report said post-menopausal women should be cautious about calcium intake over concerns about kidney stones, though they advocated adolescent girls are most in need and should increase their calcium intake to 1,300 mg/day.