Studies have found that taking vitamin D reduces mortality from cancer by 13 percent. In some countries, such as Finland, foods are fortified with vitamin D. Epidemiologists from the German Cancer Research Center have calculated that more than 100,000 cancer deaths in Europe could be avoided in this way.
Foods fortified with vitamin D can increase vitamin D levels to a similar extent as vitamin D supplements. According to studies, fortified foods currently prevent around 11,000 cancer deaths in the European Union and 27,000 in the 34 European countries considered.
Vitamin D is only added to food in a few countries, and according to experts this has great potential: “If all the countries we looked at were to fortify food with adequate amounts of vitamin D, around 130,000 or nine percent of all cancer deaths in Europe could be prevented according to our model calculations . That corresponds to a gain of almost 1.2 million years of life,” said Prof. Dr. Hermann Brenner, who published the results with his team in the “European Journal of Epidemiology”.
He believes that this opportunity should be better exploited in the future. The vitamin D level can also be increased naturally: by spending time outdoors, two to three times a week for around twelve minutes. The face, hands and parts of the arms and legs should be uncovered and without sun protection.
What: DOI: 10.1007/s10654-022-00867-4