Food science research has recently published the links between adequate vitamin D levels and reduced risks of breast and colon cancer, reduced falls in the elderly, a reduction in stress fractures in young athletic women, a possible reduction in age related wet-type macular degeneration, and improved bone structure and density in children borne from mother’s whose diets contain elevated levels vitamin D. And this list is by no means complete.

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism added to the list of Vitamin D’s benefits when it looked at the relationship between it and preeclampsia.

• Dr. Lisa Bodnar, PhD, MPH, RD Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Psychiatry, and Ob/Gyn at the Graduate School of Public Health and School of Medicine at University of Pittsburgh.