Vitamin D must be oil-based

18. October 2006 William Davis (10)
As part of the Track Your Plaque coronary plaque reversal program, we advocate vitamin D supplementation. Vitamin D has been shown to reduce blood sugar and reduce pre-diabetic tendencies, reduce blood pressure (it's a renin antagonist, a blood pressure hormone), it's far more important for bone health than calcium, and it may help prevent colon cancer, prostate cancer, and multiple sclerosis.

And, oh yes, it may facilitate coronary plaque regression.

One lesson I've learned is that vitamin D MUST be taken as a oil-based capsule or gelcap. You'll recognize it as a transparent or translucent, sometimes opaque, capsule. The list of ingredients may say something like "cholecalciferol [vitamin D] in a base of soybean oil", indicating that the active ingredient is oil-based. Oil-based vitamin D3 skyrockets blood levels of 25-OH-vitamin D3 in to the normal range reliably and easily.


Tablets are a different story. These are generally white powdery tablets. The rise in blood levels of vitamin D3 are minimal, sometimes none. Women will often say "I get vitamin D with my calcium tablets."


People taking this form almost always have blood levels of vitamin D that are low, as if they were taking nothing.
If you're going to take vitamin D, the oil-based tablets are the way to go. They're not necessarily any more expensive. We've had good experiences with the Nature's Life 2000 unit capsule, as well as preparations from Life Extension. We have had negative experiences with the preparations from GNC, Sam's Club, and Walgreen's, all tablets and non-oil-based.
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Comments (10) -

  • Anonymous

    3/16/2007 4:46:00 PM |

    NOW you tell me.....I just bought a big bottle of Vitamin D3 TABLETS.

    (sigh)

  • Warren

    3/17/2007 4:58:00 AM |

    I agree that taking gel caps is most convenient and will create the most likelihood of consistent proper uptake.  But will taking the pills with a meal containing fat, or with my fish oil caps, likely make the pills work just as well as the gel caps?

  • Dr. Davis

    3/17/2007 12:14:00 PM |

    Not an formal analysis, but my experience is that the great majority of tablet preparations, regardless of how they're taken, yield trivial levels of absorption. It's oil-containing gelcaps or no, I'm afraid.

  • Anonymous

    3/9/2008 4:44:00 AM |

    What about the LEF capsules which are a fine powder.  They the same deal?

  • Anonymous

    3/24/2008 1:05:00 PM |

    I haven't seen the Vitamin Shoppe version yet, but the Carlson's Vitamin D souce is Cod Liver oil.

    Are there problems with cod liver oil as the source of "D" -- i.e. the increased vitamin A, and possible mercury/pcb contamination?  My understanding re taking omega 3's, for example, is that cod liver oil is not the healthiest source, because of the above.

    What is the story w/the Vitamin Shoppe, et.al. oil based versions?  Am particularly concerned because I need to find a version safe for a 6 year old -- and the increased A/mercury, et.al. issue is even more important in a small child.

  • Bev

    5/16/2008 2:53:00 PM |

    I have a fish allergy so taking a cod-liver formulation of vitamin D is out. Are there any preparations you know of that are oil-based but not fish-based? I haven't found any so far.

  • Indrani

    5/22/2009 7:45:40 PM |

    Vitamin D gels are available at Whole Foods.

  • Dan

    9/21/2009 2:12:34 AM |

    Hey man,
    my fiancee wrote an article on Vitamin D summarizing a ton of research, and one of her citations that she has is of a study that directly contradicts your statement that it's important to have an oil-based form.

    Basically, they measured the serum measurements after supplementation with either tablets and cod liver oil and simply found the results to be statistically insignificant.

    See for yourself:
    ↑ Vieth, R (1999-05). "Vitamin D supplementation, 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, and safety". The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 69 (5): 842-856. ISSN 0002-9165.

    By the way, I linked her article on my name. Hope you don't reject it for that reason.

    If you have any input to give me, I'd love to hear it (including any research that contradicts the study I just pasted -- we're aiming for accuracy here)... dan@mdpatrick.com

  • lainy

    12/6/2009 11:06:44 PM |

    I found some capsules from Sundown Naturals, 2000 IU.  Do you think those are just as good as the Carlson's or Vitamin Shoppe?  They are a lot smaller than any I've seen before...

  • buy jeans

    11/3/2010 9:16:00 PM |

    In other words, vitamin D tablets do not work. It is shameful. I see numerous women taking calcium tablets with D--the vitamin D does not work. I've actually seen blood levels of zero on these preparations.

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The “Heart Healthy” scam

The “Heart Healthy” scam

27. July 2008 William Davis (1)
Like many scams, this one follows a predictable formula.

It is a formula widely practiced among food manufacturers, ever since food products began to jockey for position based on nutritional composition and purported health benefits.

First, identify a component of food, such as wheat fiber or oat bran, that confers a health benefit. Then, validate the healthy effect in clinical studies. Wheat fiber, for instance, promotes bowel regularity and reduces the likelihood of colon cancer. Oat bran reduces blood cholesterol levels.

Second, commercialize food products that contain the purported healthy ingredient. Wheat bran becomes Shredded Wheat, Fiber One, and Raisin Bran cereals and an endless choice of “healthy” breads. Oat bran becomes Honey Bunches of Oats, Quaker’s Instant Oatmeal, and granola bars. Even if many unhealthy components are added, as long as the original healthy product is included, the manufacturer continues to lay claim to healthy effects.

Third, as long as the original healthy ingredient remains, get an agency like the American Heart Association to provide an endorsement: “American Heart Association Tested and Approved.”

The last step is the easiest: just pay for it, provided the product meets a set of requirements, no matter how lax.

You will find the American Heart Association certification on Quaker Instant Oatmeal Crunch Apples and Cinnamon. Each serving contains 39 grams carbohydrate, 16 grams sugar (approximately 4 teaspoons), and 2.5 grams fat of which 0.5 grams are saturated. Ingredients include sugar, corn syrup, flaked corn, and partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil. Curiously, of the 4 grams of fiber per serving, only 1 gram is the soluble variety, the sort that reduces cholesterol blood levels. (This relatively trivial quantity of soluble fiber is unlikely to impact significantly on cholesterol levels, since a minimum 3 grams of soluble fiber is the quantity required, as demonstrated in a number of clinical studies.) Nonetheless, this sugar product proudly wears the AHA endorsement.

Thus, a simple component of food that provides genuine benefit mushrooms into a cornucopia of new products with added ingredients: sugar, high fructose corn syrup, corn starch, carageenan, raisins, wheat flour, preservatives, hydrogenated oils, etc. What may have begun as a health benefit can quickly deteriorate into something that is patently unhealthy.

There’s a clever variation on this formula. Rather than developing products that include a healthy component, create products that simply lack an unhealthy ingredient, such as saturated or trans fats or sodium.

Thus, a ¾-cup serving of Cocoa Puffs cereal contains 120 calories, no fiber, 14 grams (3 ½ teaspoons) of sugar—but is low in fat and contains no saturated fat. Proudly displayed on the box front is an American Heart Association stamp of approval. It earned this stamp of approval because Cocoa Puffs was low in saturated, trans, and total fat and sodium. Likewise, Cookie Crisp cereal, featuring Chip the Wolf, a cartoon wolf in a red sweater (“The great taste of chocolate chip cookies and milk!”), has 160 calories, 26 grams carbohydrate and 19 grams (4½ teaspoons) of sugar per cup, and 0 grams fiber—but only 1.0 gram fat, none saturated, thus the AHA check mark. (Promise margarine, made with hydrogenated vegetable oil and therefore containing significant quantities of trans fats, was originally on the list, as well, but removed when the trans fat threshold was added to the AHA criteria.)

It is this phenomenon, the sleight of hand of taking a healthy component and tacking on a list of ingredients manageable only by food scientists, or asserting that a product is healthy just because it lacks a specific undesirable ingredient, that is a major factor in the extraordinary and unprecedented boom in obesity in the U.S. Imagine the chemical industry were permitted such latitude: “Our pesticide is deemed safe by the USDA because it contains no PCBs.” Such is the ill-conceived logic of the AHA Heart-Check program the "Heart Healthy" claims.

It’s best we keep in mind the observations of New York University nutritionist and author of the book, Food Politics, Marion Nestle, that “food companies—just like companies that sell cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, or any other commodity—routinely place the needs of stock holders over considerations of public health. Food companies will make and market any product that sells, regardless of its nutritional value or its effect on health. In this regard, food companies hardly differ from cigarette companies. They lobby Congress to eliminate regulations perceived as unfavorable; they press federal regulatory agencies not to enforce such regulations; and when they don’t like regulatory decisions, they file lawsuits. Like cigarette companies, food companies co-opt food and nutrition experts by supporting professional organizations and research, and they expand sales by marketing directly to children, members of minority groups, and people in develop countries—whether or not the products are likely to improve people’s diets.”

Qualms over just how heart-healthy their products are? Doubtful.
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  • jimray

    7/28/2008 3:26:00 PM |

    I want to print this out and post it on the wall of my office.  You have made clear what I have been trying to articulate for years. The labels do not always tell the truth. And ultimately it goes back to money. Thank you.

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Lipoprotein lipase and you

Lipoprotein lipase and you

30. December 2009 William Davis (0)
Lipoprotein lipase can make the difference between having heart disease and not having it. Having sky-high triglycerides or normal triglycerides. It can mean dinner hanging around for over 12 hours in the bloodstream, rather than the usual 4-6 hours.
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