Everyone should take vitamin D supplements, especially children, UK scientist urges
- Geneticist Steve Jones says he used to think vitamin supplements were ‘absolute nonsense’, but he now takes them every day
- He says a lack of vitamin D due to poor sunlight has made Scotland ‘the sick man of Europe’
One of Britain’s leading scientists has urged people to take vitamin D supplements – particularly children, who spend an hour less outside than they did 10 years ago.
Geneticist Steve Jones told the Hay literary festival in Wales the health case for taking them was now overwhelming. “I never thought I would be a person who would take vitamin supplements, I always thought it was absolute nonsense, it’s homeopathy. I now take vitamin D every day,” he said.
“Today, because I knew the sun wasn’t going to shine, I took an extra one.
“Children today spend an hour a day less outside than they did 10 years ago. That’s the smartphone and the tablet situation. Scottish children spend less time in the sun than any other children in the world.”
He said the bone disease rickets, which doctors thought they had eliminated from Britain in the 1950s, was a real issue today.