Fueling Playtime: How Vitamin D Supports Active Lifestyles In Children

Written by Kaushiki Gangully

Published: October 11, 2024

Table of Contents

Vitamin D Benefits Fuelling Your Kid’s Playtime

Improving Energy And Stamina
Building Strength
Enhancing Mental Health
Maintaining Bone And Muscle Health
Preventing Diseases And Infections

Tips On Incorporating More Vitamin D Into Your Active Kid’s Diet

Conclusion

Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is important for your kid’s health and wholesome development. Actually, a secosteroid hormone, vitamin D has a unique story of its own. A fat-soluble vitamin, vitamin D exists in two forms in nature - vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) and vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). And the human body can store vitamin D, but cannot produce it, unless in the presence of sunlight. Since vitamins are essential nutrients that cannot be produced in the human body, vitamin D qualifies as a hormone thanks to sunshine and technicality.

However, this magical vitamin is suffering a sincere dearth in children's diets nowadays due to their hectic and cooped-up existence. During the day, your kids run after teachers, tutors, and classes while you run behind them at their leisure to give up screen time and spend some time outdoors or in nature. However, since kids do not learn by listening to their parents but by mimicking them, you need to be an ideal role model for digital use and spending more time outdoors.

Here is a quick guide on the main factors fuelling your kid’s playtime and supporting their active lifestyles.

Vitamin D Benefits Fuelling Your Kid’s Playtime

Vitamin D plays a host for multiple health benefits, including

1. Improving Energy And Stamina

Vitamin D is necessary for your kid’s energy levels as it greatly improves them while ensuring smooth functioning of various bodily functions. Since the vitamin is mainly acquired from healthy whole foods and by being out in the open air, it automatically improves their health and stamina. And if your kid is getting adequate nourishment, exercise, and rest, their energy levels are bound to be on top gear all day, making you do daily warm-ups to keep up with their active lifestyles.

2. Building Strength

Vitamin D improves muscle function while building your kid’s strength. Since the vitamin plays a key role in cell formation, division, growth, and apoptosis (planned cell death), it also influences various cellular reactions. It ensures the proper functioning of organs and muscles. And since healthy muscles and bones only require adequate stamina to build strength quickly, vitamin D is essential for supporting an active lifestyle for your kids.

3. Enhancing Mental Health

Vitamin D and brain health go hand in hand. The hormone helps regulate the synthesis of NGF (or nerve growth factor) to ensure a healthy nervous system while improving mood and sleep. Deficiency in vitamin D is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and more, so it is ideal to include adequate vitamin D in your kid’s diet.

4. Maintaining Bone And Muscle Health

Vitamin D is mainly known for its key role in improving and maintaining bone and muscle health. It is involved with the entire procedure, beginning with the absorption of calcium and phosphate, increasing bone density, and ensuring timely degeneration of bone cells. As for muscles, vitamin D is known for improving muscle size, strength, and function in individuals whose diets are enriched by the sunshine vitamin.

5. Preventing Diseases And Infections

Vitamin D is known for fighting diseases like multiple sclerosis, hypertension, heart failure, stroke, type 1 diabetes, COVID-19, rheumatoid arthritis, and bowel diseases. It naturally improves their body’s natural barrier against chronic and lifestyle diseases like obesity as well. The vitamin is ideal for ensuring your kid’s health is up to date-and ready for an active lifestyle.

Tips On Incorporating More Vitamin D Into Your Active Kid’s Diet

Ensure your kids spend at least 30 to 45 minutes playing outside daily. Since playing during the day is dangerous for health due to harsh UV radiation, the ideal time for outdoor games and natural vitamin D production remains either dawn or late afternoon. They may play gulley cricket or football, do yoga, go for long walks, or enjoy cycling, but doing a digital detox and getting moving in the sun is necessary.
Try incorporating more foods rich in vitamin D into your kid's diet. Wonderful sources of vitamin D include fatty fish like rohu, hilsa, and salmon, as well as meat, dairy, poultry, and mushrooms, especially button mushrooms.
These healthy foods may not initially be to your kid’s liking, but they will like any food they are introduced to at an early age without any stigma of ‘good food’ or ‘bad food’. As for older kids, try to involve them in cooking and preparing home dishes as creatively as possible.
If your kid still suffers from vitamin D deficiency, taking fish liver oil supplements or visiting a health care professional is ideal.

Conclusion

Vitamin D has bountiful benefits for all those who seek its blessings. This quick guide will surely fuel your kid’s playtime in the right way and support an active lifestyle for your children and yourself.