New findings conclude U.S. children may lack healthy level of vitamin D

NEW YORK Vitamin D is quickly moving up within the ranks of letter vitamins as the most supplemented letter vitamin, having recently surpassed vitamin B-complex and vitamin E as measured by sales. Indeed, sales of vitamins A & D (tracked together) were up a whopping 75.8% to $85.1 million for the 52 weeks ended Sept. 6 across food, drug and mass (minus Walmart), according to Information Resources Inc. Only sales of vitamin B (alone) and vitamin C totaled more than vitamin A/D with $140.9 million and $175.8 million, respectively, representing year-ago increases of 25.6% and 14.1%.

The meteoric rise in vitamin D can be traced to studies such as this one, all of which continue to tease out two themes — vitamin D is beneficial for your overall health; and just about everyone is vitamin D deficient.

Vitamin D happens to be especially important for children, not only in the development of healthy bones, but also in the development of a healthy immune system.