Sunshine and Daylight

It is interesting to note that two nutrients making the nutrition headlines these days don't even come from food-vitamin D and vitamin B12. Yet when we think of nutrition, we invariably think of our food as the primary source. Apparently, at least in the case of vitamin D and vitamin B12, this is not the case. Perhaps it is time to broaden our thinking, and realize that your nutrition, like your overall health, is only as strong as its weakest link. While most of us are more comfortable to simply hear confirmation of what we think we already know, an open mind is required if we truly wish to learn anything new.

Not only is sunshine directly responsible for almost all of our production of vitamin D, an essential nutrient that affects calcium metabolism in every cell of the body, it is also our sole source of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. UV is known as a sanitizing agent; it disinfects whatever it comes into contact with. Our skin is cleansed of fungi, molds, and many other undesirable microbial life forms when it is exposed to sunlight. The UV rays penetrate the skin for almost an inch, cleaning blood, lymph, intracellular fluids, and extracellular fluids along the way. Without UV exposure, our blood can become so toxic that our kidneys eventually fail to handle the load.

Many organs and glands depend upon sunlight as a regulatory factor. A variety of hormones affecting calcium metabolism, normalized cell growth, sexuality, and many other important functions are dependent upon moderate exposure to sunlight. Don't fall prey to the false and ubiquitous mythology that regular doses of direct, moderate sunlight causes cancer; it does not. Our nutrition would be critically compromised without such exposure.

Without sunlight, none of the fruits and vegetables that we call food could grow or even survive. In darkness, it would be almost impossible for us to find our food. Sure, we now can create artificial lights, and even artificial sunlight, but no man-made light source provides an acceptable substitute for the real thing.

Daylight is as important to our mental health as it is to our overall nutrition. Sunlight affects our mood, for the better, an issue that I discuss below, under "Emotional Poise."

Intrinsic Factor
(Внутренний фактор (фактор Кастла) — фермент, переводящий неактивную форму витамина B12 (поступающую с пищей) в активную (усвояемую). Представляет собой одноцепочечный гликопротеин, состоящий из 340 аминокислотных остатков, с молекулярным весом около 44 кДа.Секретируется париетальными клетками фундальных желёз, располагающихся в области дна и тела желудка.)

We get redundant exposure to vitamin B12, which is produced by bacteria, on the surfaces of almost all of the garden-fresh organic fruits and vegetables we consume. However, a great many us (including a proportionally equal number of meat eaters) experience deficiencies as a result of a reduced ability to absorb this valuable nutrient. Intrinsic factor, produced by the parietal cells of the stomach, is necessary for the absorption of B12 in the intestines. If you are not producing a sufficient quantity of intrinsic factor, you will eventually become deficient in B12, which is a common cause of B12 deficiency. There are many reasons for producing or absorbing insufficient intrinsic factor. A few of the most common are death of the cells that produce intrinsic factor (sometimes caused by specific antibodies), stomach cancer, ulcers, specific diseases of the small intestine, fish tapeworm, stomach surgery, and bowel surgery.