What’s Hot: Bottling rays of sunshine

NEW YORK —Sales of the sunshine vitamin continue to heat up, especially as more clinical studies find that vitamin D is an essential nutrient that the body needs, and nobody’s getting enough of it. Not really.

“Vitamin D, that continues to be the ongoing superstar,” said Doug Jones, corporate communications and public relations manager at Pharmavite. According to Information Resources Inc., sales of vitamins A and D, which are tracked together, reached as high as $85.1 million in food, drug and mass (minus Walmart) on growth of 75.8% for the 52 weeks ended Sept. 6. And that growth continues to skyrocket—according to data provided by Pharmavite, sales of vitamin D alone are up 82% for the four weeks ended Sept. 9.

Researchers have noted that about half of adults, and more than half of children, are vitamin D deficient. Lifestyle factors, including increased sunscreen use and more time spent indoors, have contributed to these deficiencies.

Among the benefits of vitamin D, bone health possibly is the most well-known; vitamin D helps increase calcium absorption by as much as 65% as compared with calcium supplementation alone.