Lessons for nutritional science from vitamin D

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Abstract
The compound we call vitamin D can no longer properly be considered a vitamin, and for most mammals, it is not in any sense even a nutrient. Nevertheless, vitamin D resembles true vitamins inasmuch as humans—who are cut off from the critical solar ultraviolet wavelengths by reason of latitude, clothing, or shelter—depend on an exogenous source of the substance just as they do for the true essential nutrients. In any event, vitamin D is inextricably imbedded in nutritional science and the matter of discerning how much we need for health offers instructive general lessons for the setting of nutrient requirements.

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