Gardening and the sunshine vitamin

Following routine blood work, I was surprised to learn from the doc that I had low Vitamin D levels. Apparently, it's so common that these days it's regularly tested for. Nobody knows why this should be so, but the doc said the odds-on favorite is excessive use of sunscreen. (The skin cancer message seems to have been received.) The pharmacist said the same thing when I picked up the D3 prescription.

Well, I'm not buying it. The best source of Vitamin D comes from sun exposure, and nobody, especially in these latitudes where the sun's rays are strongest, should be deficient. And especially if they spend time outside. I only use sunscreen when I plan to be in the garden for any length of time, but I'm not fanatical and I spend a few minutes here and there most days in sunlight. I have (light) tan lines to prove it.

There are all sorts of factors that govern the manufacture of D in the skin, including intensity of the rays and the color of the skin (the darker, the more sun exposure required). Here, for example, is what WebMD says:

Many people living in the Southern United States can get enough vitamin D by getting about 10-15 minutes of sun exposure on their arms and face a few times a week -- as long as they don't use sunscreen, which blocks some of the UV rays necessary to make the vitamin.

That is not difficult to do in South Florida.

So, dear readers, are you Vitamin D deficient? Do you think the sunscreen explanation is credible? Do weigh in.

Tomato-derived supplement staves off heart disease

Here's another reason to grow your own toms: eat enough of them and your heart will thank you.

That's not really news; what is, is that a company in the UK, a spin off from Cambridge University, has launched a nonprescription product containing lycopene in a more easily digested formula.

The BBC has a report.