Vitamin D3: Food Sources & Daily Intake

Table of Contents

1. How to Read These Tables
2. Recommended Intakes & Upper Limits
3. Bioavailability & Absorption
4. Cooking & Storage
5. Vegetarian & Vegan Sources
6. Groups at Higher Risk of Low Vitamin D
7. Key Research Papers
8. Connections
9. Featured Videos

How to Read These Tables

• Fat-soluble. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin; once made in the skin or eaten, it can be sequestered in body fat stores (Linus Pauling Institute).
• %DV vs RDA. The %DV column is each food’s per-100 g amount divided by the FDA Daily Value of 20 mcg for adults and children 4 years and older (21 CFR 101.9). The RDA set by the Institute of Medicine is 15 mcg (600 IU) a day from age 1 to 70 and 20 mcg (800 IU) from age 71 — see the second table. The Linus Pauling Institute tables list 10 mcg as 400 IU and 15 mcg as 600 IU (1 mcg = 40 IU).
• Per 100 g vs per serving. Every amount and %DV in the table is per 100 g of the food as listed in USDA FoodData Central. The portion under each food name is FDC’s gram weight for that portion, shown for reference; the amounts are not per portion.

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Recommended Intakes & Upper Limits

The RDA varies by age and life stage. The Daily Value used for the %DV column above is a single label figure; the table below lists the age-specific values.

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Bioavailability & Absorption

Vitamin D is fat-soluble. In a one-day randomized trial in 50 healthy older adults (Dawson-Hughes 2015), peak plasma vitamin D3 after a single 50,000 IU supplement was 32% higher when it was taken with a meal containing fat than with a fat-free meal; the ratio of monounsaturated to polyunsaturated fat in the meal made no significant difference. Both D3 and D2 raise blood 25-hydroxyvitamin D. A 2012 meta-analysis of randomized trials that compared them directly (Tripkovic) found D3 more effective at raising serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D overall; the difference was significant for large single (bolus) doses and was lost with daily dosing. Both forms are biologically inactive precursors that the liver and kidneys convert to active forms, and the Linus Pauling Institute notes that magnesium regulates the activity of critical enzymes in vitamin D metabolism.

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Cooking & Storage

How much vitamin D survives cooking depends on the food and the method. In household-cooking experiments (Ložnjak and Jakobsen 2018), vitamin D3 retention in rainbow trout was 85–114% — not significantly different from 100% except for pan-frying, at 85% — while vitamin D2 retention in button mushrooms was 62–88%. In eggs and margarine (Jakobsen and Knuthsen 2014), 40 minutes in an oven retained 39–45%, frying retained 82–84%, and boiled eggs retained 86–88%. For mushrooms, the larger factor is light: a 2018 review (Cardwell) reports that commonly eaten species exposed to UV radiation, such as sunlight or a UV lamp, can generate nutritionally relevant amounts of vitamin D2, and that the level may fall with storage and cooking. FoodData Central lists 0.3 mcg per 100 g for raw portabella and 28.4 mcg per 100 g for UV-exposed raw portabella. A 2023 study of UV-irradiated button mushrooms that were air-dried and rehydrated found at least 95% of the D vitamers retained after frying, baking or boiling.

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Vegetarian & Vegan Sources

Of the few natural food sources the Linus Pauling Institute lists — fatty fish, fish liver oils, eggs and UV-exposed mushrooms — only the mushrooms are free of animal products. A 2018 review (Cardwell) describes UV-exposed mushrooms as having the potential to be the only non-animal, unfortified food source that can provide a substantial amount of vitamin D2 in a single serving. The other routes the Institute describes are fortified foods (some cereals, breads and fruit juices), whose vitamin D content it calls highly variable, and supplements: most non-prescription vitamin D supplements contain D3, and multivitamins generally provide 400–1,000 IU (10–25 mcg) of D2 or D3. Decisions about supplements belong with a clinician.

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Groups at Higher Risk of Low Vitamin D

The Linus Pauling Institute lists these risk factors for vitamin D deficiency: older age (reduced capacity to make vitamin D in the skin; the RDA rises to 20 mcg from age 71), darker skin, high latitude, season and air conditions that reduce UVB, clothing that covers most of the skin, sun-protection practices, exclusively breastfed infants who receive no vitamin D supplement (human milk generally provides 10–80 IU per liter, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends an oral supplement of 400 IU a day for all breastfed and partially breastfed infants), fat-malabsorption conditions such as cystic fibrosis and liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s disease (especially after small-bowel resection), obesity, and chronic kidney disease. Severe deficiency causes rickets in children and osteomalacia (softened bones and bone pain, with a higher risk of osteoporosis) in adults. Vitamin D toxicity has not been observed from sun exposure; it causes high blood calcium (hypercalcemia), which, if untreated for a long time, can lead to bone loss, kidney stones and calcification of the heart and kidneys. The Institute reports hypercalcemia after daily doses above 50,000 IU, sets out the 4,000 IU (100 mcg) adult UL, and lists primary hyperparathyroidism, sarcoidosis, tuberculosis and lymphoma as conditions that raise the risk of hypercalcemia in response to vitamin D.

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Key Research Papers

1. NIH Office of Dietary Supplements — Vitamin D Fact Sheet (DV, RDA, UL, IU conversion)
2. Linus Pauling Institute — Vitamin D Micronutrient Information Center
3. Burdette CQ, Yen JH, Kuszak AJ, Wise SA. Value Assignment of Vitamin D and 25-Hydroxyvitamin D in Food-Matrix Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) Using Isotope Dilution Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (ID LC-MS/MS). J Agric Food Chem. 2026;74(18):14607-14618. PubMed PMID: 41934645
4. USDA FoodData Central — SR Legacy and Foundation Foods (vitamin D per 100 g and portion weights for every food in the table)
5. 21 CFR 101.9 — Nutrition labeling of food (vitamin D Daily Value, 20 mcg for adults and children 4 years and older)
6. Dawson-Hughes B, Harris SS, Lichtenstein AH, Dolnikowski G, Palermo NJ, Rasmussen H. Dietary fat increases vitamin D-3 absorption. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2015;115(2):225-230. PubMed PMID: 25441954
7. Tripkovic L, Lambert H, Hart K, Smith CP, Bucca G, Penson S, Chope G, Hyppönen E, Berry J, Vieth R, Lanham-New S. Comparison of vitamin D2 and vitamin D3 supplementation in raising serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D status: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012;95(6):1357-1364. PubMed PMID: 22552031
8. Ložnjak P, Jakobsen J. Stability of vitamin D3 and vitamin D2 in oil, fish and mushrooms after household cooking. Food Chem. 2018;254:144-149. PubMed PMID: 29548435
9. Jakobsen J, Knuthsen P. Stability of vitamin D in foodstuffs during cooking. Food Chem. 2014;148:170-175. PubMed PMID: 24262542
10. Cardwell G, Bornman JF, James AP, Black LJ. A Review of Mushrooms as a Potential Source of Dietary Vitamin D. Nutrients. 2018;10(10):1498. PubMed PMID: 30322118
11. Cardwell G, Bornman JF, James AP, Daly A, Dabos G, Adorno P, Jakobsen J, Dunlop E, Black LJ. Effect of household cooking on the retention of vitamin D2 and 25-hydroxyvitamin D2 in pulse UV-irradiated, air-dried button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus). Food Chem. 2023;424:136387. PubMed PMID: 37224637

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Connections

• All Vitamins
• Vitamin D3 (Main Page)
• Vitamin D3 Benefits
• Vitamin D3 History
• Calcium (D controls its absorption)
• Vitamin K
• Magnesium
• Salmon

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