Vitamin D
The Deal with Vitamin D
You've probably heard your entire life that milk is good for your bones. It's true, but not just because of the calcium. Your bones can't do their job with calcium alone. They need vitamin D too. Vitamin D actually helps your bones use the calcium you get from foods like yogurt, cheese, fortified orange juice, or almonds.
Lots of foods have calcium, but vitamin D is harder to find.
Foods with vitamin D include:
- Fortified milk
- Canned tuna
- Salmon
- Fortified yogurt
- Fortified cereal
Check out the chart to see more foods fortified with vitamin D. (Not all brands are fortified with vitamin D, so check the food labels to make sure.) You can also get vitamin D from sunlight.
Girls ages 9-18 need 200 international units (IU) of vitamin D every day. You can get this from about 2 glasses of fortified milk every day.
Content last updated September 2009
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