Vegetarian Sources of Vitamin D: What to Do Besides Sunbathing

The Limits of Sunlight

Skin exposed to UV rays can synthesize vitamin D, but factors like latitude, season, sunscreen habits, and long hours spent indoors can all make sunlight alone an unreliable way to get enough — a challenge for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.

Vegetarian-Friendly Food Sources

• Fortified foods: plant milks and breakfast cereals with added vitamin D
• Mushrooms: mushrooms treated with UV light have a noticeably higher vitamin D content — check the packaging when buying
• Vitamin D supplements: the market offers D2 (from plant or fungal sources) as well as some vegan D3 formulas (sourced from lichen)

Advice for Beginners

People who get little winter sunlight or work indoors year-round should pay special attention to this one. If needed, a checkup can tell you your vitamin D levels, which can help you decide whether supplementation makes sense.

A Quick Tip

Vitamin D and calcium absorption go hand in hand, so paying attention to both together will make your calcium efforts more effective too. If you live somewhere that's overcast most of the year or at a high latitude, try to spend a bit more time outdoors in winter — even just ten or fifteen minutes of sun during a lunch break can help your body synthesize vitamin D. It's the simplest, and cheapest, way to help.