Do something sexy for your special someone. Give them vitamin D. It will boost their mood, memory, muscle strength, and immune system while reducing their risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and death from all causes.
Recipe of the Month
Milanese-Style Chicken and Arugula Salad
Tomato-Basil Vinaigrette
• ½ C. Red Wine Vinegar
• ¼ C. Basil Leaves
• 4 Plum tomatoes cut into chunks
• 2 t. Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 t sugar
• ½ t salt
• 4 Large garlic clove
1. Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.
2. Pour ½ cup dressing into 2qt glass baking dish, reserve remaining dressing
Salad
• 4 Skinless boneless chicken breasts
• 4 Red bell peppers cut into quarters
• 1 t Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pkg Baby Arugula
• ¼ C Pine nuts, toasted
3. Place chicken in glass baking dish and marinate for 30 minutes
4. Preheat grill or broiler
5. Brush peppers with oil and grill along with chicken until tender and peppers are to desired texture
6. Divide arugula between four plates.
7. Slice chicken and place on arugula with thinly sliced peppers.
8. Drizzle with vinaigrette and top with pine nuts
Serves 4
Remember our recipes are courtesy of Chef Kelly (kellychez@gmail.com). If you have recipes you would like to share or convert to follow the rules of The Vitamin D Cure send them to contact@thevitamindcure.com .
Vitamin D in the News
Muscle weakness is an important symptom of vitamin D deficiency, but it has not been well studied. This study was based in a secondary school. A total of 99, 12- to 14-yr-old girls were included. Median serum 25(OH)D3 concentration was 8 ng/mL. They found a positive relationship between 25(OH)D and jump velocity (P = 0.002), jump height (P = 0.005), power (P = 0.003), Esslinger Fitness Index (P = 0.003), and force (P = 0.05). From these data they concluded that vitamin D was significantly associated with muscle power and force in adolescent girls.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease associated with genes in the tissue typing class (MHC class II) region of our genome. Population data on MS provide strong evidence that environmental factors act to influence the unusual geographical distribution of this disease. Growing evidence implicates sunlight or vitamin D as a key environmental factor in its cause. This study implicates vitamin D as a strong environmental candidate in MS by demonstrating direct functional interaction with a gene that increases susceptibility to disease (HLA DRB1). These findings support a connection between the population data and the genetic features of this disease with major practical implications for studies of disease cause and prevention.
The immune system has long been known to be influenced by essential nutrients in our diet. Vitamins A and D have been shown to have an unexpected and crucial effect on the immune response. This review discusses our current understanding of the essential roles of these nutrients in modulating a broad range of immune processes, such as white cell (T-cell) activation and proliferation, T-helper-cell differentiation, tissue-specific white blood cell homing, the production of specific antibodies and regulation of the immune response. Finally, they discuss the clinical potential of vitamins A and D for modulating immune responses and for preventing and/or treating inflammation and autoimmunity.
Vitamin D Success Story
Please share your successes at success@thevitamindcure.com , or tell your story in a book review, online at Amazon. Your success story has a powerful impact on motivating others to change their lifestyle.
Our success story this week comes from the February issue of Fitness Magazine for which Dr. Dowd was interviewed.