I can still remember the bottle, the shelf in the refrigerator where it was stored, and the terrible taste of it, even though it was just a few drops on my tongue!
Why did I get the cod liver oil? For the vitamin D, because Gertrude did not want me to get rickets. Even though I drank milk, she knew that I needed the “sunshine” vitamin to absorb the calcium in the milk. I think Vitamin D was added to milk sometime in the 1930’s but Gertrude wanted to be sure that I got enough, especially in the winter months. Buffalo is so far north that in the winter the days are too short and too cold to be outside for very long. And in the winter, Gertrude would wrap me in so many layers of clothing that I really could barely move. If you have ever watched the movie, Christmas Story where the little boy is wrapped up by his mother to go outside and play, but falls down and cannot get up, that could have been me.
When I did research on vitamin D I found that Schlitz beer, brewed in Milwaukie, also added vitamin D. I guess if you did not drink milk you could get your nutrients from the beer.
Today I still take my vitamin D but in a pill form. Why? Because of my fair Irish complexion, I always burn and have had one brush with skin cancer. So, I lather on the sunscreen daily and have not had a tan or sun burn in many years. My background in nutrition and my work with geriatric clients made be realized that Vitamin D has many roles in our health, not just keeping our bones intact.
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