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Top up on the ‘sunshine vitamin’ this winter and beyond with our top tablets, sweets and sprays

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Not just for bone, muscle and dental health, it may also help to prevent and cope with respiratory infections

Few things can put our health under the spotlight like a pandemic. Covid has brought sharply into focus our physical and mental wellbeing and the body’s innate ability to ward off harmful bugs and viruses. Immunity is the buzzword of the day.

Exercise and eating a healthy balanced diet are essential to helping your body get all the nutrients it needs to stay well. But there’s one vitamin, try as you might by eating well, that you will need to supplement in autumn and winter: vitamin D. You can blame it on the weather.

Dr Sam Oliver, a reader in sport and exercise science at Bangor University, says: “From October through to March due to insufficient sunlight, a low-dose daily oral vitamin D3 supplement might be needed to maintain vitamin D sufficiency.”

The sunshine vitamin, so-called because we get most of it from the sun’s rays, is essential for maintaining musculoskeletal health by supporting our bones, teeth and muscles. Research has also linked it to boosting the immune system, and Dr Oliver and his colleagues made another significant discovery last year.

“More recently, a greater understanding of vitamin D’s role within the immune system means that maintaining vitamin D sufficiency may also be important to prevent and cope with respiratory infections,” he says. “For example, our recent research indicates winter vitamin D supplementation reduces the duration and severity of the common cold.”

Now you know the need for vitamin D, let us try to help you demystify the vast number of options out there so you can decide which is best for you and your health.

We’ve scoured the market and selected the supplements we’d be happy to take ourselves, after listening to the expert’s advice. We’ve included a range of products with several methods of consumption, noting how easy each they were to take, and a number of different strengths. Please note that doses of more than 1,000IU are rarely needed unless you have a condition or lifestyle that requires higher potency vitamin D (please speak to your clinician before starting a high-potency supplement).

They say good things come in small packages, and this supplement proves that. Inside this compact, letterbox-friendly foil bag – which uses less plastic than conventional pill bottles – are 180 tiny tablets measuring 6mm, each delivering a high-quality 1,000IU vitamin D hit. They are incredibly easy to swallow and leave no aftertaste, so they are perfect for anyone who struggles to take pills without gagging. Perhaps best of all, though, is the price: this bag for less than £4 is equivalent to a six-month supply of vitamin D and will easily get you through autumn and winter.

Best: Easy to take supplement

If you find swallowing pills unpleasant and struggle to do so without gagging, this supplement is likely ideal for you. Instead of drinking down the tablet with a glass of water, they are instead taken sublingually – popped under your tongue where they quickly dissolve and absorb into your bloodstream without even having gone through your stomach.

Frunutta was co-founded by Dr Ali Alavi, a surgeon and aerospace engineer who has an autistic child who was low on nutrients and unable to swallow pills. The brand was the clever answer to helping his son get all the vitamins and minerals he needed.

Each one-a-day capsule will give you 1,000IU of vitamin D3 and without any chemicals, coatings or fillings, and each pack contains 100 servings, which works out at 15p a day.

Many supplements contain milk, come in gelatine capsules or have been tested on animals, so we wanted to include something that is suitable for vegans. The Nature’s Own vitamin D3 is cruelty-free and takes the nutrient from lichen extract. Our tester found the one-a-day tablets easy to swallow and liked that they are free from GMO, gluten and yeast. There are 60 pills in each bottle, giving you a two-month supply.

A liquid supplement like this is an effortless way to take vitamins. This one requires only one drop daily, so it really couldn’t be simpler or quicker to make sure you’re getting all the vitamin D you need throughout autumn and winter. It is recommended that you consume this supplement with a meal, so you could keep it near your cereal to remind you to take it with your breakfast. Each bottle contains a two-month supply and does not need to be refrigerated for easy storage.

Combining multiple vitamins and minerals in one product is one of the easiest ways to introduce convenience to your supplement routine. Aguulp is the result of a celeb collaboration – the brand was founded by Stephen Manderson (AKA Professor Green), SAS soldier Kevin Godlington, and special forces sergeant and TV presenter Jason Fox – and aims to be an antidote to our common problems.

For immunity is, you guessed it, to help support our immune systems. It contains 1,000IU vitamin D3, but also decent levels of vitamins A, B6, B9, B12, C and E. As well as all that it has omega-3 from fish oils and elderberry plant extract, which is said to help protect against colds and flu.

To take, simply gulp down the liquid in the sachet, which is orange flavoured. It does have a hint of fish, but our tester found that storing it in the fridge and taking the supplement cold almost eliminated that. This is a pricey supplement, but it could save you money in the long run as you would no longer need to buy the other vitamins included. There’s also a subscription option is available, which will save you £5 a month.

People with certain conditions, multiple sclerosis, for example, may need to take significantly higher than usual doses of vitamin D all year round. This supplement is ideal for those people. It contains 3,000IU of vitamin D3 that is delivered daily with three sprays under the tongue at any time of day – a bottle contains 35 servings. Our tester found it easy to use and store, and liked that a subscription service is available, so you never run out and save £3 each month. We would recommend speaking with your GP before starting this supplement though, because of its high potency.

The NHS recommends that all children under five years of age take a daily vitamin D supplement throughout the year. But getting your child to take capsules is another matter entirely. That is unless you can give it to them in sweet form – these gummies will undoubtedly do the trick. One of these chewy orange flavoured bears a day provides little ones with the recommended 10 micrograms of vitamin D, plus they’ll look forward to taking them – our young tester tells us that they are yummy.

Taking a daily supplement can generate a lot of plastic waste over the years, but Dr Vegan has a solution to help limit your impact on the planet. These plant-based vitamins come in plastic-free, compostable packaging and can be stored in your special refillable Dr Vegan pill tin to keep them fresh. The daily supplement itself is vegan, easy to swallow, halal, and gluten, dairy and lactose-free, making them suitable for pretty much everyone.

This is a high dose vitamin D, with 2,500IU per pill, so please do check with your clinician that it is suitable for you. It is already a reasonable option, but there is an offer that means you can buy three packets and only pay for two, while a subscription service saves you 15 per cent.

Vitamin D deficiency can lead to bone problems, such as rickets in children and bone pain and muscle weakness in adults, which may increase the risks of falls and fractures in the elderly, as well as increased susceptibility to infection.

Food such as oily fish, red meat, egg yolks, mushrooms and fortified foods like breakfast cereals are high in vitamin D.

Given the insufficient sunlight, it’s best to do so from October through to March. In the UK, from April through to September most people can obtain the vitamin D they need from skin (endogenous) synthesis via short daily exposures to sunlight, i.e., about 15 minutes of midday sun exposure in shorts and a T-shirt.

A daily oral 10 micrograms (400IU) vitamin D3 supplement during autumn and winter.

Vitamin D toxicity is possible with high doses (more than 4,000IU per day) of oral supplementation.

We’ve heard in conversation sometimes that orange juice (vitamin C) might be helpful; however, the only randomised controlled trial we’re aware of showed no difference between vitamin D bioavailability when consumed with orange juice compared to capsules.

Convenience, quality and value for money make the Nutrition Geeks vitamin D3 1,000IU our best buy. They are extremely easy to take, generate less plastic waste than conventional pill bottles and carry a price tag that is accessible for most people.

We’d also recommend Aguulp for immunity if you’re looking to combine multiple vitamins and minerals in one easy to take supplement, and the Dr Vegan vitamin D3 for its eco-friendly credentials.

For offers on supplements and other health products, try our discount code pages:

Looking to go vegan? We’ve found the best vegan cookbooks that dish up killer plant-based recipes

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