These days, we’re constantly hearing about how important it is to stay out of the sun. Skin cancer and premature aging are just two of the harmful effects of the sun’s UV rays, so slopping on the sunscreen and hiding in the shade have become common practice. But there is one healthy benefit of sun exposure: we need it to produce vitamin D.

Vitamin D is in fact the only vitamin that humans can produce on their own, rather than having to eat it. Technically, that makes it not a vitamin at all, but it’s extremely important for healthy bones. It allows us to absorb calcium and use it to grown and strengthen bones throughout our lives.

Because it is so vital, food producers have supplemented key foods like milk with extra vitamin D for those of us who don’t spend enough time in the sun to make sufficient quantities. That’s actually quite a lot of us. People who live in places far from the equator suffer from a lack of sunlight over the winter months.

That makes it difficult for huge numbers of people to get the recommended 200 to 600 international units per day. Most Europeans and many North Americans are among those who need to supplement their intake of vitamin D, particularly during the winter.

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