How To Reach (& Maintain) Sufficient Vitamin D Levels, From Experts

When it comes to discussing the vitamin D nutrient gap, we don't shy away from the opportunity to share our point of view—in fact, we're pretty proud to get on our soapbox about it. Why, you ask? One moment, let me grab my megaphone… 

Between 93%1 and 100% of the U.S. population2 is failing to consume the vitamin D they need from diet alone—that's pretty much all of us! To get more specific and consider diet, sunshine, and all the inputs: 41% of American adults are clinically insufficient in vitamin D, and 29% are straight-up deficient3.

At mbg, we care deeply about this issue, and our content reflects that. We've covered signs you're deficient in vitamin D yourself, as well as strategies to raise those pesky vitamin D levels, and everything in between.

Here's the issue with those ranges: As the bottom cutoff for sufficiency, 30 ng/ml is a far cry from ideal vitamin D levels. 

And considering vitamin D receptors are found in nearly every cell in the body (indicating vitamin D plays an important role in virtually every physiological system), having optimal levels of D is absolutely vital to your whole-body health.* 

That's why many trusted nutrition and medical experts have adopted 50 ng/ml as the new standard goal for optimal vitamin D levels—including our very own Ferira, who deems 30 ng/ml the warning zone you "avoid with intention," not a number to strive for. Ferira shares this analogy: "If you want an "A" grade on a test and the cutoff for that achievement is 90, you don't aim for 89 or 90, you aim higher."

Let's say you get your 25(OH)D levels tested and it turns out your status is 31 ng/ml. You're not sure what that means, so you do some research and discover you're just on the cusp of insufficiency—oh no! 

You decide it's time to distance yourself from the warning zone, so you follow all the advice in this article and start taking a daily high-quality vitamin D3 supplement with 5,000 IU (a clinically effective dose rooted in research) and built-in fat absorption technology (like mindbodygreen's vitamin D3 potency+). 

And who could forget about magnesium? You make sure you get enough of the essential mineral in your diet by adding enough magnesium-rich foods like chia seeds, almonds, and walnuts to your meals (and a high-quality supplement can help too) to reach the recommended daily allowance (310 to 320 milligrams for women and 410 to 420 milligrams for men). 

You even try to get outside on sunny days and eat foods rich in vitamin D (e.g., salmon, tuna, egg yolks, and mushrooms) a few times a week. There's no doubt you've covered all your bases. 

You follow this routine diligently for three months and get your vitamin D levels retested. You get your results back and—you did it! You reached that coveted 50 ng/ml (on the nose, in fact).

You're in a great position now—50 ng/ml is far from insufficiency and certainly high enough for you to reap the full spectrum of vitamin D whole-body health benefits.* You can also raise your 25(OH)D status by quite a lot before reaching truly toxic levels of vitamin D.* (But we'll let the science do the talking, here.)

It was reported in a 2018 review published in Frontiers in Endocrinology5 that both the Institute of Medicine and the Endocrine Society have concluded serum 25(OH)D concentrations must exceed 150 ng/ml for vitamin D toxicity to be of concern. If you haven't done the mental math already, that's three times the recommended 25(OH)D level of 50 ng/ml.

Now that we've addressed any apprehension you may have about climbing above 50 ng/ml, let's talk about next steps for maintaining sufficient vitamin D levels. After taking a high-potency D3 supplement for the past three months, what you don't want to do is stop cold turkey after reaching 50 ng/ml. This will surely lead to yo-yo-ing between sufficient and insufficient D status, and we're exclusively aiming for steady levels of vitamin D sufficiency. 

Some nutrition experts and clinicians recommend their patients hover around 50 ng/ml, while others encourage their patients to aim higher (we’re talking 60 to 80 ng/ml). We encourage you to find an endocrinologist, registered dietitian, or other health care practitioner well-versed in the current vitamin D research and best practices to care for you and your specific health needs.

While vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency are extremely common in the U.S., people's vitamin D needs are unique, and their approach to achieving optimal levels should be individualized.