Vitamin D for athletes
Any sport — endurance and team sports alike
Vitamin D is unusual among nutrients in that most people's supply has historically come from sunlight rather than food, which is exactly why it is easy to fall short of without eating any differently. For athletes it matters mainly for bone — and bone is what takes the load in every sport with running in it.
Why this differs from the ordinary recommendation
Training indoors, living at a northern latitude, training through winter, or having darker skin all reduce how much vitamin D your skin makes, and several of those describe a lot of athletes for a lot of the year.
Low vitamin D status is associated with bone stress injuries, which are among the more season-ending problems in running and jumping sports.
Very few foods carry much of it: oily fish, egg yolks, and whatever is fortified where you live. That is a short list to hit by accident.
Figures from the American College of Sports Medicine, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and Dietitians of Canada — joint position stand, Nutrition and Athletic Performance (2016). Ranges are given at the conservative end — see the note on each number above.
Where this stops being useful
Vitamin D is fat-soluble and accumulates, so it is genuinely possible to take too much — this is not a nutrient to load on a hunch. Status is a blood test, and both the test and any supplement belong with your doctor. A food diary can show you what you ate; it cannot tell you your level.
Healthy Squirrel gives nutrition estimates, not medical advice.
Foods highest in vitamin d (per 100 g)
| Food | per 100 g | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|
| Fish oil, cod liver | 250 mcg | 1250% |
| Mushrooms, brown, italian, or crimini, exposed to ultraviolet light, raw | 32 mcg | 160% |
| Mushrooms, portabella, exposed to ultraviolet light, raw | 28 mcg | 142% |
| Mushrooms, maitake, raw | 28 mcg | 141% |
| Fish, halibut, Greenland, raw | 27 mcg | 137% |
| Mushroom, white, exposed to ultraviolet light, raw | 26 mcg | 131% |
| Fish, mackerel, salted | 25 mcg | 126% |
| Fish, carp, raw | 25 mcg | 123% |
| Fish, eel, mixed species, raw | 23 mcg | 117% |
| Salmon, sockeye, canned, drained solids, without skin and bones | 22 mcg | 108% |
| Fish, salmon, sockeye, canned, drained solids | 21 mcg | 105% |
| Fish, sturgeon, mixed species, smoked | 16 mcg | 81% |
Per 100 g from USDA FoodData Central, whole foods, highest first. In the app every amount scales to the serving you actually log.
More detail on this nutrient: foods highest in vitamin d.
Track it without doing the arithmetic
Healthy Squirrel fills in vitamin d — and every other vitamin and mineral — automatically as you log food, so you can see where your week actually lands rather than guessing. It's free, there's no account needed to start, and nothing is sold.
Open Healthy Squirrel and log a day to see where you land.
Other guides
Ready to see your full nutrient profile?
Open Healthy Squirrel — it's free