awful take:

1. non-white countries have just as or higher rates of Vitamin D deficiency

2. a huge percentage of people are Vitamin D deficient

3. depending on where you live, for a large portion of the year because of the angle of the sun, there's no possibly way to get enough sunlight for Vitamin D production

basically everyone should be taking it. it's cheap and helps prevent a lot of health issues.

Why would I go outside into the sunlight when there are so many lotus flowers to eat in my dank filthy dark bedroom

Here at the 45th parallel we definitely need Vitamin D supplements.

But it does feel like November-February is spent living down a hole so that tracks.

Do you live in a place with winter?

Non-white people are a lot worse at synthesizing vitamin D into their body through sunlight. To get enough vitamin D you need 30 minutes outside if white, 2 hours if black.

Winter depression is a thing because you go to work when it's dark, you leave work it's already sunset if you have an office job.

idk if those times even work in the winter when you don't even expose your entire face because it cold.

Hmmm. I'm less convinced of this being a fact.

There have been at least a couple of studies done on surfers in Hawaii who are semi-professional or who report getting at least 15 hours of sun exposure per week (and we're talking a lot of time spent with their entire backs to the Hawaiian sun here too) and these studies have shown a surprising amount of vitamin D deficiency in the subjects.

Most people aren't getting anywhere near that amount of sun exposure and I'd hazard a guess that most people aren't consuming much liver in their diet.

We don't need vitamin D supplements unless we are living down a hole

Or if you never

When you walk with Jesus

He's gonna save your soul

But you gotta take your vitamins

Way dowwwwwn in the hole!

Really depends on where you live. Just read a study by a university at my latitude where we get as little as 10 hrs a day of sun in the dead of winter. Even taking 1000IU's per day, healthy adults were losing vitamin D all winter, and some were falling into low levels by spring when levels naturally rebound. 2000IU's kept levels steady all winter. It's not like it's expensive either, I just bought a bottle for 10 bucks that will last me almost two years.

There definitely needs to be better regulations and clearer packaging on all vitamins and supplements though

guess i need me some vitamin d then

Some people live places were the sun doesn't shine a whole lot for long periods of time. Those people often do need vitamin D supplements no matter their skin color and no matter the elevation of their home.