The most powerful and most important part of the statement from the APHA, is its “Action Statements.” In these statements the American Public Health Association has a series of eight recommendations, and I will highlight the most significant ones.

1. The most important of these is that it encourages the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advocate and provide funding for a system to educate health-care providers and practitioners as well as public health professionals and others, including patient advocates and community health workers, about the benefits of adequate levels of vitamin D.
2. It also advocates that the APHA have a representative on the 2010 panel for Dietary Guidelines for Americans who will speak about ways to improve vitamin D intake.
3. It recommends that Congress appropriate funding to conduct research into the many populations of our country in order to find specific vitamin D intakes that are associated with a reduced risk of chronic diseases.
4. It very importantly recommends that the Food and Drug Administration add vitamin D to the list of required nutrients that appears on the Nutrition Facts Panel that is required on all foods in the US marketplace.
5. The last and very important part of the “Action Statements” is that it urges the Department of Health and Human Services and the USDA to begin a campaign that will be pointed at the general public and based on the current scientific data without waiting for further publications.

You can read the complete set of action statements at this website:

www.apha.org

It’s very exciting to see such an important organization as the APHA come out so strongly in support of having all Americans normalize their vitamin D levels. As you know from my book this is been one of my missions as well.