Raised vitamin D recommendations 'a step in the right direction'

The Institute of Medicine set out new, increased, dietary recommendations for calcium and vitamin D earlier this week. But, were the recommendations too conservative?

Andrew Shao, senior vice president, scientific and regulatory affairs, at the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) said that welcomed the increased RDI as "a step in the right direction", but said they had not raised recommendations for vitamin D intake to "as high as we would like to see, based on the evidence."

“The IOM is charged with making recommendations for the general population …so they try to avoid extremes in their recommendations, there may be sub populations or patients who have higher needs, they need to dealt with by their healthcare professional,” said Shao.

Shao said that there were no adverse effects at taking vitamin D up to 10,000 limits per day. He said that the IOM upper limit of 4,000 per day was very conservative, and showed a difference in philosophical approach.

He added that leading experts in the field of vitamin D research were deliberately excluded from the IOM review, in an attempt to avoid bias in the report; he said that the lack of vitamin D experts contributing to the report may have played a role in the conservative recommendations.