"Vitamin D has become a really hot topic," said Catharine Ross, a Penn State University nutrition professor, who chaired the panel. "We hope that the report will provide some reassurance to the American and Canadian public" - federal agencies in both countries were the sponsors - "that their Vitamin D status is not nearly as poor as they have been led to think . . . and is consistent with good bone health."
The conclusion that most people now get enough of the "sunshine vitamin" was perhaps the most controversial finding. Although there is no national standard for adequate levels of Vitamin D in the blood, hundreds of recent studies have found associations between low levels and the risk of various disorders.
Few of those studies were able to prove cause-and-effect, however, and the findings often conflicted. As a result, the panel set aside all claims of benefit for Vitamin D except for skeletal health, which has been known for more than a century. Most Americans, they said, get enough for their bones.
"Basically, what is going to happen here is nothing," said a disgusted-sounding Bruce W. Hollis, professor of pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina. Hollis, who gave expert testimony to the committee, has found significant benefits to infants whose breast-feeding mothers take 6,000 IU of Vitamin D daily - 10 times the new guideline.
Although the new recommendations of 600 IU per day for most children and adults are triple the old guideline, Hollis and other experts said that was too small to matter.
The panel also made recommendations for calcium, which works with Vitamin D to build bone. Most calcium guidelines stayed the same.
