Sources Of Vitamin D2 And D3

Promotes healthy bones and teeth.

Sources of vitamin d2 and d3. Vitamin d3 also known as cholecalciferol is the most biologically active form of vitamin d found in humans and animals. Vitamin d3 is primarily found in animal foods such as fish liver eggs and cod liver oil. That fluke dates back to the 1930 s and still remains. The two forms of vitamin d differ depending on their food sources.

Vitamin d is available in two forms. Officially the government still counts an iu of d2 as being equivalent to an iu of d3. Halibut and mackerel provide 600 and 360 iu per serving respectively 11 12. Since vitamin d2 is cheaper to produce it s the most common form in fortified foods.

Vitamin d3 is only found in animal sourced foods whereas d2 mainly comes from plant sources and fortified foods. Vitamin d2 comes from plant sources such as yeast and fungi whereas vitamin d3 is available from animal sources and our body makes vitamin d3 with the help of sunlight. Vitamin d2 ergocalciferol and vitamin d3 cholecalciferol. The bad news is that your primary source which is vitamin d2 has been shown to be dramatically less effective than the animal derived d3 in terms of bioavailability and absorption.

Other types of fatty fish are also good vitamin d sources. Dairy free milk soy almond coconut etc for instance will sometimes contain vitamin d2 rather than d3 the nutrient that is typically found in most cow dairy. Vitamin d3 comes from animals vitamin d2 from plants. Meanwhile vitamin d2 is mostly in mushrooms and fortified foods such as cereal.