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Vitamin sunshine
![Food Standards Scotland Vitamin D campaign in Glasgow](https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/images/ansel/_ansel_image_cache/6c22910ae4c5de4d5aa9e0fe472de14f.jpg)
Gordon Brownlie enjoys some evening ‘sunshine’ on Buchanan Street, courtesy of Food Standards Scotland’s (FSS) ‘Vitamin D Orb’.
The mock giant vitamin tablet was on the Glasgow shopping thoroughfare to promote FSS’s ongoing campaign to encourage people of all ages to take a daily 10-microgram vitamin D supplement, to boost their levels during the winter months.
Vitamin D has a number of important functions in the body and is needed to support bone and muscle health.
The body creates vitamin D from direct sunlight on the skin when outdoors. But in Scotland, we only get enough of the right kind of sunlight for our bodies to make vitamin D between April and September, meaning for roughly half the year (between October and March) it is not possible for our bodies to make it from sunlight.