Doctors have been studying the relationship between obesity and low levels of vitamin D in the body for years. Acting on a hunch, Dr. Shalamar Sibley, M.D. decided to research on the issue and what she discovered may well change the our view of this vitamin. She found that people with adequate supply of vitamin D in their body tended to lose more weight than those with low levels of vitamin d even as everyone involved in the study reduced their calorie intake equally. Since that time, there has been an explosion of research on how vitamin D dials down fat.
Studies indicate that most Americans are deficient in vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency, in fact, is one of the most commonly unrecognized diseases. When we have adequate vitamin D in our body, it releases more leptin, the hormone that tells our body to stop eating. An Australian study proved that breakfast rich in vitamin D and calcium blunted the appetite of those involved in the test for the next 24 hours. With enough vitamin D in the blood, fat cells do not produce as much fat cells and stores less fat. In effect, an adequate amount of vitamin D in the body triggers the loss of fat all over our body especially in the belly area. Michael B. Zemel, PhD, director of the nutrition institute of the University of Tennessee explains that a diet rich in dairy products (composed of calcium and vitamin D) helped people lose 70 percent more weight than a diet with the same number of calories but without the high levels of calcium and vitamin D.