According to my doctor, raising vit D through diet is not reasonable. It’s sunlight or pills/shots if sunlight won’t do it (genetics or climate).
In peak summer with being outdoors 2+ hours every day my Vit D was 30 (<30 is inadequate) and drank fortified almond milk daily. In winter it drops to 20 with similar outdoor time. Been on a 50,000 pill once a week since.
Maybe someone will share a well informed diet that contradicts my doctor.
I get the sense that you have to eat a lot of fish, which introduces heavy metal concerns because of modern fishing, which is why my doctor went the route he did. And how do you know the one type of mushroom actually gets the right light to have natural Vit D—-raw ingredients like mushrooms don’t usually have nutrition labels.
> Been on a 50,000 pill once a week since.
FYI, spiking Vitamin D levels in the blood weekly might not be the best idea, though it's not exactly proven. There's a theory that spiking Vitamin D like that can promote blood vessel calcification. There's some more theory that Vitamin K administered at the same time might help.
It could be safer to do 5,000 IU seven days a week than spikes of 50K once a week.
Watch out, though. I was on a similar daily dose and ended up with Vitamin D levels touching the upper limit. Too much Vitamin D is not good for you.
> and drank fortified almond milk daily.
Can't say without seeing the labels, but I wouldn't expect a cup of almond milk to have more than 10-20% of your daily value.
IIRC supplementing K with D also helps D to be absorbed and/or utilized better.
Are you getting enough Magnesium (and also Vitamin B6)? Magnesium is a required cofactor of Vitamin D in many bodily processes.