After years of developing and marketing healthy bakery products, the couple is now launching a new line, called "D-Rich Products,"
featuring dark chocolates, as well as a powdered vitamin D supplement. Both are pending FDA approval as supplements.
The chocolates are fortified with 1,000 International Units (IU) of vitamin D. That's 1,000 per chocolate; your average
multivitamin or supplement contains only about 200 or 400.
"The results that people get when they consume higher levels of vitamin D are just phenomenal," said Paul Stitt, who has just published a new book, "Vitamin D: Is It The Fountain of Youth?"
Speaking from his family's experience, the answer to his book's title is a resounding 'yes.'
But he adds that science backs up what he, his wife and son have experienced personally.
"My book is based on 38,000 articles from the National Library of Medicine," said Stitt, who is a biochemist. "There is so much information about how people who consume the most vitamin D have less cancer, diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune problems, osteoporosis and chronic pain. This is all established by disinterested third-party researchers."
Stitt became interested in vitamin D after his otherwise healthy son was diagnosed with osteoporosis at age 37. To their
surprise, vitamin D deficiency was to blame.
Once Stitt began researching the topic, he became convinced that our culture, and in particular, Wisconsin residents, aren't
getting enough vitamin D.
The deficiency is contributing to an epidemic of osteoporosis, pain and other chronic diseases, he believes.
"I think the No. 1 cause is we are scared to death of the sun," Stitt said. "And if we do go out in the sun we wear sunblock
and a lot of clothes."
The body produces vitamin D when exposed to sunlight.
Even though Wisconsinites are well known for consuming plenty of calcium-rich dairy products, it's doing them little good without adequate vitamin D, he added. That's because vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption.
The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences still recommends that people need 200 IU of vitamin D daily
until age 50, and 400 IU from age 50 to 70.
Stitt believes that these guidelines, developed in 1968, are terribly outdated.
Stitt points to numerous studies and journal articles by Vitamin D experts, including the work of Canadian researcher Reinheld Vieth. In the May 1999 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, for example, Vieth says people need 4,000 to 10,000 IU a day, and that toxicity isn't a concern until you reach a 40,000 IU dose.
Stitt concedes that physicians aren't exactly embracing his recommendation that people should consume 4,000 to 5,000 IU of vitamin D per day from various sources.
Dr. Jennifer Norden, medical director of Affinity Health System's Integrative Medicine Centre in Oshkosh, agrees that the
government's recommended daily allowance for vitamin D is antiquated, but she advises not to exceed 2,000 IU per day.
"I think that vitamin D has been undervalued," she said. "My general recommendation is that people – women especially, need
800 to 1,000 international units per day. And that's most important during the winter months."
Barbara Stitt, 75, has been taking 5,000 IU per day for about a year now.
"It's amazing how much more muscle definition she has," Paul Stitt said. "She feels so much stronger."
Paul Stitt, 65, meanwhile, says he's been taking 20,000 IU a day. He says he feels better than he did 25 years ago. After
several decades of gray hair, he says dark roots are growing in.
"We feel so young and energetic," he said.