Vitamin D intake and its food sources in Taiwanese.

In the early 20th Century, vitamin D was discovered and its Recommended Daily Allowance developed. However, average daily dietary intakes have not been reported until recently in the US. There are no food composi-tion and no intake data for vitamin D available in Taiwan. We have taken advantage of several population representative Nutrition and Health Surveys in Taiwan (NAHSIT) conducted from 1993 onwards of various age groups to examine this possibility systematically. Firstly, we collected and compiled the vitamin D content of foods from various sources to supplement the Taiwanese Food Composition Tables. Though these vitamin D data may not be fully representative of local food items, they serve as a reference point. Secondly, we have used the three NAHSITs databases, which all used the 24-hr recall method to collect dietary intake date and five food frequency questionnaire type questions to collect supplement data, to estimate most gender- and age-specific (in-clude: school children, adults and elderly) vitamin D intake from food source and supplements. Thirdly, we have defined the sources of vitamin D intake in Taiwanese (gender- and age-specific). Vitamin D intakes of Taiwanese were adequate except girls of high school and indigenous people. Fish and its products, milk, mushroom were the major vitamin D food sources. Supplement source vitamin D also varied greatly between age and gen-der groups. Elderly women consumed almost 20% of vitamin D from supplements; 16-18 years old boys consumed 2.47% vitamin D from supplements only.