Tanning salon con: is fake baking really the best way to get vitamin D?

Mother Jones, July-August, 2009 by Kiera Butler

EXPOSURE TO UV LIGHT can cause skin cancer, but according to the Indoor Tanning Association, it's also "the best way to help the body manufacture the vitamin D it needs." This argument has caught on in colder climates: Remember Sarah Palin's personal tanning bed? Technically, the ITA is correct, says Mayo Clinic endocrinologist Kurt Kennel: Soaking up UV rays is the only way to get your body to convert cholesterol into vitamin D on its own. Most people can easily do this by spending 15 minutes in the sun three times a week. If for some reason you have no access to sunlight, popping 30 nanograms of the vitamin also gives you all you need, says Kennel. But the ITA makes ingesting vitamin D sound like a chore: "One would have to consume ten glasses of fortified juices or milk every day of the year," its website states. Asked why the ITA insists that tanning is the only reasonable way to get vitamin D, spokeswoman Sarah Longwell explains, "If you're a supplement company, you can promote the supplement. But we are the Indoor Tanning Association."

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