Hi! I'm Stelios Pantazis.

I'm a doctor and I specialize in
medical nutrition and metabolic disorders.

Today, I'd like to recommend the ideal time
to take your vitamin D supplements.

If you've watched other episodes
on this channel,

you've noticed that I insist
that vitamin D is extremely important

and it's really hard to take it
exclusively from your diet,

because very few foods
contain it in sufficient amounts.

This means that many of us
need to take vitamin D

in order to protect our health.

But when is the ideal time
to take vitamin D?

In the morning or in the evening?

While you're eating or before you eat?

Today, I'm telling you the ideal way
to consume this really important vitamin

as a dietary supplement,

in order to maximise its absorption
and its efficiency.

Let me remind you that people
that are not exposed to the sun much,

like most of us systematically
working in an office,

or overweight people
or people with dark skin

run a significantly higher risk
of vitamin-D deficiency.

Since vitamin D is really important,

both because of its strong
anticancer effect

and because it contributes
to the proper function of the immune system,

you should measure it,
and if you're deficient,

you should supplement it
with a healthy diet or dietary supplements,

which are often necessary, unfortunately.

Vitamin D is a lipophilic protein,

which means that for it
to be absorbed properly,

there should be a sufficient amount
of oil or fat in the stomach.

Studies have repeatedly shown

that the absorption of vitamin D
increases significantly

when consumed with a fatty meal,

namely with a meal containing oil,
dried nuts or animal fat.

This means that if you eat cereals
and low-fat milk for breakfast,

the fats will possibly be too little

for the maximum amount
of vitamin D to be absorbed,

thus a large amount of it
will be lost in feces.

If you want to maximise
the absorption of vitamin D,

you should take it with your lunch,

which is often richer.

But if you want to take vitamin D
with your breakfast,

make sure that your breakfast
has a source of fats,

such as dried nuts, full-fat milk,
full-fat live yoghurt or avocado.

Moreover, some studies have suggested

that vitamin D may affect melatonin,

namely the natural hormone
that the body produces for us to sleep.

This means that it may negatively
affect our sleep.

Although the data are very early
and they have not been confirmed,

you'd better try to avoid
taking vitamin D in the evening.

Therefore, if you believe that you need
to take vitamin-D dietary supplements,

in order to reach the ideal
vitamin-D levels for your health,

you'd better take vitamin D
either at lunch or in the morning,

as long as your breakfast includes

oil, dried nuts, avocado or full-fat dairy.

If you thought this was interesting,
please give us a thumbs up.

Share it with people who you think
might find it interesting,

and subscribe to our channel in order
to get notified when we upload a video.

You can also suggest subjects
in the comment section.

Thank you very much!