I looked at my D-minder app at the beginning of a subarctic winter, on Friday I think it was, and read 'You will next get Vitamin D from the sun in 108 days'. UVI reading of 0, of course.
I am now in Auckland in Aotearoa, and have seen the sun. Sort of (it's quite cloudy). UVI reading of 10. I will get actual sun exposure to my actual exposed skin! (You have to excuse me, as a new/Swede we get a bit sun crazy at this time of the year. Due to the lack of it in Sweden.) (Go live in Sweden or anywhere at that latitude, for 8-10 years and then you will know entirely what I am talking about
.)
I have to worry about sunscreen again. Or making sure I don't get more than 15 minutes of sunscreen-less exposure.
And I realised that I forgot to put my liquid vitamin D in a little plastic bag for airplane security folk! No-one said anything. I believe this to be meaningful. (I'm going to be spiritual - the sun is god. God is a sun god! The sun is the source of all life no less!) (That was me being spiritual.)
The sun is indeed a truly awesome thing. As long as you respect it, re the malignant melanoma risk factor. (Big in this sunny ozone- holed part of the world.) But with the sun we can grow plants (all year round here, wo ho! lol), and with the sun, and/or a good vitamin D supplement, and fatty fish (as the Scandos well know) - we can get enough of it to help our insulin production (re type 2 in any case) and sensitivity!
An excuse to re-post the wonderful explanation of vitamin D's essential initial role in insulin sensitivity:
(takeaway quote from below: "If you don't have enough vitamin D it is going to be very hard for your glucose to talk to your pancreas so you can get an insulin release."
OK, my religious chant to the sun, and to insulin sensitivity is over.