header-banner-VitaminD.jpg
Earth first

Vitamin D Supplements | How It’s Made

Vitamin D plays many roles in health, from bone development to strong immune systems. There is even emerging evidence that it protects against coronavirus. But if it’s so hard to find good dietary sources of Vitamin D, where does the Vitamin D in supplements come from?

Vitamin D: Vital for Health 

It’s long been known that Vitamin D functions with calcium to keep bones healthy and avoid deformities such as rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. But it is becoming increasingly clear that it also plays a vital role for our immune system, helping to fight off bacterial, viral and fungal invaders. 

Vitamin D appears to boost immunity through several ways, such as helping immune cells to function properly and dampening the inflammatory response.1,2,3 There is even some evidence that it protects against coronavirus, since low Vitamin D levels have been associated with both a higher number of coronavirus deaths and cases for European countries and more severe outcomes for individuals affected by the disease.4,5 It may be no coincidence that the pandemic broke out in winter, when people’s Vitamin D levels are typically at their lowest.6 

‘The Sunshine Vitamin’

Vitamin D has always been a curiosity among vitamins, being the only one our bodies can manufacture in the presence of sunlight. During the sunnier months, this is how most people obtain enough Vitamin D for their needs. But during winter, it can be very difficult to maintain good levels of Vitamin D through natural means alone. As a result, Vitamin D deficiency is widespread and thought to affect one billion children and adults across the globe.7 A prime reason is that there are few sources of this vital nutrient besides sunlight. 

Vitamin D2 vs D3

At this point, it is important to point out that there are two main forms of Vitamin D: Vitamin D2 and D3. Both are essentially converted in the same way by our bodies into the active form. Vitamin D3 is the type we make in sunlight and is also found in a limited number of animal foods, such as oily fish and cod liver oil. Vitamin D2 comes from plants and fungi, including mushrooms grown under UV light. 

Vitamin D Supplements

Since the number of food sources containing Vitamin D is so limited, many countries advise their citizens to take a daily Vitamin D supplement during winter. In some countries, foods such as milk, yogurts and bread are also fortified with Vitamin D (of either form) to help ensure people have enough in their diet.

But if Vitamin D is so difficult to get hold of, how are these Vitamin D supplements made? Surely they don’t come from mountains of cod livers or mushrooms?

Vitamin D is made of sheep’s wool?

Vitamin D supplements are made from either the D2 or D3 form – if you check the label, it should tell you which one has been used. They might look the same in pill form, but they come from very different sources. 

How Vitamin D3 supplements are made

For Vitamin D3 supplements, the process actually starts with lanolin, a fatty substance secreted by the skin glands of sheep to condition their wool. It has been used variously by human cultures for thousands of years and today is an ingredient of many skin creams, beauty products and lip balms due to its waterproofing and barrier qualities. But it also provides the chemical precursors for making Vitamin D3. 

To produce Vitamin 3, sheep’s wool fleece is first washed to remove any impurities – which range from dirt and straw to faeces and parasites such as blow flies. A detergent is then added to extract the crude lanolin. This is then saponified: a process which converts the fatty component into chemicals that can be removed by centrifugation. The remaining lanolin alcohols are then refined further and subjected to a solvent wash and/or chromatography. This extracts crude cholesterol, which is the base ingredient for a series of chemical reactions that produce a compound named ‘7-dehydrocholesterol’, also called ‘pre-Vitamin D3’. This is illuminated by ultraviolet light to form Vitamin D3, mimicking the reaction that occurs in our skin. 

Vegan Vitamin D

Certain people, such as vegans, may feel uneasy about using a product that comes from sheep. Furthermore, lanolin can also cause allergic reactions (and can be the basis for some apparent allergies to wool). In this case, Vitamin D2 supplements can be an option since these are made using a different process, through applying ultraviolet radiation to ‘ergosterol’, a compound obtained from yeast.

But there’s a catch: recent studies indicate that Vitamin D3 supplements are significantly more effective than Vitamin D2 in raising Vitamin D levels in the body.8 Not surprisingly, entrepreneurs have spotted an opportunity to make a vegan version of Vitamin D3. The company Vegetology has produced what they claim to be ‘the world’s first vegan source of Vitamin D3’, extracted from lichens. These are symbiotic associations between two or more organisms: a fungus and algae and/or cyanobacteria. The lichens for Vegetology’s supplements are farmed in designated outdoor areas in Asia and North America. The Vitamin D3 is extracted using methods similar to those in the pharmaceutical industry, using water and plant ethanol, and applying pressure.

Getting Enough Vitamin D

If all this has made you think twice about where your vitamin supplements come from, the good news is that during the summer months at least you should be able to get enough Vitamin D simply by heading outside every day.

Are there any other supplements you are curious about? Let us know in the comments below!

Related articles

Most viewed

Inside Our Food

Fermentation of Yogurt and the Chemistry Behind it

Carolina Moyano

Fermentation is a natural process that can be used in a number of ways for wide variety of food…

Earth First

Cashew Nuts | How It’s Made

Molly Melvin

Brought over from Brazil, nurtured in India and commercialised all over the world, the cashew nut…

Earth First

How to do Veganuary | 5 Nutritional Reminders To Remember

Aran Shaunak

Are you trying a plant-based diet this Veganuary? Remember that while plant-based diets can be great…

Human Stories

Eating Disorders: Rekindling Our Relationship With Food

Lynn Liu

Like many who suffer from an eating disorder, mine started when I was an adolescent entering my…

Inside Our Food

Caffeine: How Much is Too Much?

Samanta Oon

If a caffeine kick is part of your morning ritual, you’re not alone — around 80% of us…

Earth First

Sustainable Protein Powders | Whey vs Plant-Based Protein Supplements

Aran Shaunak

Whether for health reasons or in an effort to improve athletic performance, many people turn to…

Earth First

Health Claims | The Asterisk: Friend or Foe?

Dr Chris Ryder

The humble asterisk (*) has many uses, one of which is to redirect readers to another part of a text…

Inside Our Food

3 Different Types of Sugar

Madhura Rao

Sugar is made from the sugar cane (Saccharum officinarumand) and the sugar beet (Beta vulgaris…

Inside Our Food

What is Bubble Tea? | Insider Secrets on Bubble Tea

Lynn Liu

Despite the name, there are no actual “bubbles” in bubble tea. There isn’t always…

Earth First

Should We Bring Back The Buffet?

Dr Caroline Wood

Lavish, all-you-can-eat spreads are often a key feature of parties, weddings, hotel stays and…

Inside Our Food

Animal Testing in Food Research | Ask the Expert

Madhura Rao,Dr Alie de Boer

It might come as a surprise, but some foods or ingredients are tested on animals. Moving away from…

Inside Our Food

The Price of Saffron

Claudia Lee

As the most expensive spice in the world, saffron is an extremely lucrative product. With limited…

References
  1. Abu-Amer, Y., & Bar-Shavit, Z. (1993). Impaired bone marrow-derived macrophage differentiation in vitamin D deficiency. Cellular immunology, 151(2), 356-368. Accessed 29/05/2020.
  2. Gruber-Bzura, B. M. (2018). Vitamin D and Influenza—Prevention or Therapy?. International journal of molecular sciences, 19(8), 2419. Accessed 29/05/2020.
  1. Helming, Laura, et al. (2005). 1α, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 is a potent suppressor of interferon γ–mediated macrophage activation. Blood, 106(13), 4351-4358. Accessed 29/05/2020.
  2. Ilie, P. C., Stefanescu, S., & Smith, L. (2020). The role of vitamin D in the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 infection and mortality. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 1. Accessed 29/05/2020.
  3. Alipio, M. (2020). Vitamin D Supplementation Could Possibly Improve Clinical Outcomes of Patients Infected with Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19). Available at SSRN 3571484. Accessed 29/05/2020.
  4. Grant, W. B., Lahore, H., McDonnell, S. L., Baggerly, C. A., French, C. B., Aliano, J. L., & Bhattoa, H. P. (2020). Evidence that vitamin D supplementation could reduce risk of influenza and COVID-19 infections and deaths. Nutrients, 12(4), 988. Accessed 2
  5. Holick, M. F. (2017). The vitamin D deficiency pandemic: approaches for diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders, 18(2), 153-165. Accessed 29/05/2020.
  6. Tripkovic, Laura, et al. (2017). Daily supplementation with 15 μg vitamin D2 compared with vitamin D3 to increase wintertime 25-hydroxyvitamin D status in healthy South Asian and white European women: a 12-wk randomized, placebo-controlled food-fortificati
See MoreSee Less

Keep updated with the latest news about your food with our newsletter

Follow Us