Do vegans need vitamin D supplements, and is D3 vegan?

The objection

“Vitamin D comes from oily fish, eggs and fortified dairy. Cut those out and you’re heading for deficiency, and the studies already show vegans with the lowest vitamin D of any diet group.”

The answer

Most people get most of their vitamin D from summer sun on the skin, so from autumn to early spring in the UK food and supplements have to supply it, for meat-eaters too, although their food supplies more of it than a vegan’s does [1][2][6]. In the UK the sun is too weak for the skin to make enough between October and early March, and a lack of vitamin D can cause rickets in children and the bone pain of osteomalacia in adults [2]. UK advice since 2016, based on a review by the government’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, has been that everyone, whatever they eat, should consider a daily 10 microgram supplement in autumn and winter [1]. Low levels are still common: in the National Diet and Nutrition Survey for 2019 to 2023, 18% of adults aged 19 to 64 had blood levels below 25 nmol/L, the level under which UK experts consider the risk of poor bone and muscle health to rise, and in January to March the share in each age and sex group from 11 upwards ran from 21% to 38% [3]. US guidance sets the bar higher, treating 50 nmol/L or above as enough for most people [4].

A vegan can take that supplement as easily as anyone, and the advice was never written for vegans alone: UK advice asks everyone to consider a supplement through autumn and winter, and Ireland’s HSE tells everyone to take one, meat-eaters included [1][5].

Do vegans have less vitamin D than meat-eaters?

Vegans usually eat less vitamin D than meat-eaters and have lower blood levels on average, more than a quarter lower in a large British study (2011), though in that study the season appeared to move blood levels more than diet did [6][7]. A 2021 systematic review of studies published between 2000 and January 2020 found vitamin D intake and status generally lower in plant-based diets than in meat-eaters’ [6]; its two authors were employed by Unilever, which markets fortified foods and supplements. Across the 21 studies that reported intake, 15 of them counting food alone, the averages were 5.25 micrograms (µg) a day for fish-eaters, 4.17 µg for meat-eaters, 2.67 µg for vegetarians and 1.52 µg for vegans [6]. Blood levels differed less consistently: only three of the nine studies that compared diet groups found significantly lower status in vegetarians or vegans, though in the four studies that reported deficiency it ranged from 3% to 67% of vegans against 0% to 6% of meat-eaters and fish-eaters, the highest figure coming from a small study of Finnish women [6].

A large British study, EPIC-Oxford, published in 2011, shows how much the season matters [7]. Its 89 vegans, who gave blood when they joined in 1993 to 1999, had an adjusted average of 55.8 nmol/L against 77.0 nmol/L in 1,388 meat-eaters, and ate 0.7 µg of vitamin D a day from food against 3.1 µg [7]. The vegans’ levels were 38% lower than the meat-eaters’ in winter and 20% lower in summer, and in winter and spring 8% of the vegans were below 25 nmol/L, compared with fewer than 1% of the meat-eaters [7]. Each diet group’s difference between winter and summer, 30.0 to 38.2 nmol/L, was larger than the 23.6 nmol/L winter gap between meat-eaters and vegans, so the authors concluded that sun had a greater influence on blood levels than diet, while still calling diet an important determinant [7]. Vegans who gave blood in summer had levels 97% higher than those who gave it in winter, the biggest seasonal difference of any group, which the authors read as a sign that vegans’ skin made vitamin D as well as anyone’s and that diet explained their lower levels, especially in winter [7]. The analysis was cross-sectional, in white, health-conscious volunteers drawn from a study of fracture risk, whose blood was taken in the 1990s; its authors noted that the vegans’ average was comparable to, if not slightly higher than, figures then reported for the general British population, and wrote that whether lower levels in vegetarians or vegans were linked to any harm was not well understood [7].

When EPIC-Oxford later followed 54,898 people, 1,982 of them vegans, for an average of 17.6 years, it reported in 2020 that vegans had 2.31 times the meat-eaters’ risk of hip fracture, about 15 more cases for every 1,000 people over 10 years, and a 43% higher risk of fractures overall, after allowing for BMI and other factors [16]. The links were stronger before allowing for BMI, and adding calcium and protein intake to the analysis weakened them only slightly [16]. A 2025 meta-analysis of four cohort studies, EPIC-Oxford among them, put vegans’ risk of hip fracture 75% higher than meat-eaters’, about 8 extra cases per 1,000 vegans, with very low certainty of evidence [17]. In one of those cohorts, the Adventist Health Study 2, vegan women who took no supplements had nearly three times the non-vegetarian women’s risk of hip fracture, while those who took calcium and vitamin D supplements together showed no significant increase, as the review reported it [17]. A 2024 cross-sectional study of 112 vegans in Spain found blood levels below 25 nmol/L significantly more common in them than in lacto-ovo vegetarians or omnivores, along with higher parathyroid hormone and a higher marker of bone breakdown than in omnivores [18]. How much of the extra risk comes from vitamin D, rather than calcium, protein or lower body weight, is not yet known [16], and the fracture data are the strongest reason for a vegan to take the winter supplement and get enough calcium.

Can you get enough vitamin D from food on a vegan diet?

Not reliably on a vegan diet or any other, because few foods contain much vitamin D [2][8]. In the 2021 review, average intake fell below 10 µg a day, the benchmark the review used, in every diet group, fish-eaters included, and in most studies it stayed below even when supplements were counted, so the authors listed meat-eaters as at risk of inadequate vitamin D intake too [6]. In the UK cows’ milk is generally not fortified, so dairy is a poor source as well [2]. Vegan sources are fortified fat spreads, breakfast cereals and unsweetened soya drinks [9], and mushrooms exposed to UV light, which New Zealand’s health service suggests making at home by leaving shop-bought mushrooms in the midday sun for 15 minutes with the stalks facing up [10]. They are worth eating, but the advice to take a supplement in autumn and winter applies to vegans too, because it is difficult to get enough from food alone [2].

How much vitamin D should a vegan take?

In the UK the NHS advice is the same for vegans as for anyone else: children from the age of 1 and adults need 10 µg a day, so consider a daily 10 microgram supplement in autumn and winter, and take one all year if you are in certain groups [2].

Who (UK)	Daily supplement	Upper limit a day
Under 1, if breastfed or having under 500ml of formula a day	8.5 to 10 µg, all year	25 µg
1 to 4	10 µg, all year	50 µg
5 to 10	10 µg in autumn and winter	50 µg
11 and over	10 µg in autumn and winter	100 µg
Pregnant or breastfeeding	10 µg, October to March; all year if at higher risk	100 µg

For pregnancy and breastfeeding, NICE’s 2025 guideline, which follows the same government advice, is firmer: take 10 µg a day from October to March, and all year with darker skin or little sun on the skin [20]. For babies and children, check how much vitamin D each drop, spray or tablet contains and keep the daily total within these limits [2].

All year applies to anyone over four who is rarely outdoors, lives in a care home or usually covers most of their skin outside, and the NHS says people with dark skin, for example of African, African-Caribbean or south Asian background, should consider it all year too [2]. Other countries set different amounts. Ireland’s HSE advises 15 µg a day from Halloween to St Patrick’s Day for everyone aged 13 to 64, and all year from 65 [5]; the US recommended intake, as MedlinePlus gave it in 2025, is 15 µg a day for ages 1 to 70 and 20 µg over 70, which it says can be hard to reach from food alone [4]; and Health Canada’s guidance, updated in 2026, is a daily 10 µg supplement for everyone aged 51 and over [11].

More is not better. A 2024 Endocrine Society guideline suggested that healthy adults under 75 should not take more than the US reference intakes given above to lower their risk of disease [21]. It also suggested against routine blood tests for vitamin D where there is no established medical reason, including in people with dark skin, so healthy people don’t need one before taking the standard dose [21]. Taken in excess over a long time, vitamin D lets calcium build up in the body, which can weaken the bones and damage the kidneys and heart, and some medical conditions lower the amount that is safe [2]. Ask a GP or pharmacist before taking it if you have been told your calcium is high, or if you take medicine for liver or kidney disease, cancer, epilepsy, fungal infections or heart disease, or steroids, and don’t double up with another supplement, such as a multivitamin, that already contains vitamin D [8]. Conditions that hinder absorption, such as coeliac disease, Crohn’s disease or weight-loss surgery, raise the risk of running low [8], and anyone at higher risk should ask their GP for advice [12]. If a doctor has prescribed a different dose, follow it [2], and speak to your GP before changing or stopping any medicine. Sunlight can’t cause an overdose, but long spells in it raise the risk of skin damage and skin cancer, so cover up or protect your skin [2].

Is vitamin D3 vegan?

Vitamin D3 is vegan when it is made from lichen, but many supplements contain D3 from the lanolin in sheep’s wool, the Vegan Society notes, while vitamin D2 is not derived from animals [13]. D3 from lichen is the same vitamin, cholecalciferol, that the skin makes [13][14], and the NHS advises vegans to read the label to make sure the vitamin D in a product is not of animal origin [9].

D3 raised blood levels more than D2 in a 2012 meta-analysis of randomised trials, mainly when given in large occasional doses; with daily doses the advantage was no longer significant [15]. A 2024 meta-analysis of daily and weekly dosing, whose lead author was employed by a company that sells vitamin D2-enriched mushrooms, still found D3 ahead: across 12 daily comparisons measured by mass spectrometry, total blood vitamin D rose 10.39 nmol/L, or 40%, less on D2 [14]. The difference was not significant in trials whose participants mostly had a BMI over 25, and when trials at high risk of bias were left out it shrank to 7.27 nmol/L, on the edge of statistical significance [14]. A 2025 meta-analysis of 11 randomised trials found that taking D2 also lowered blood levels of the D3 form, by 9.25 nmol/L on average over the trials compared with controls who took no supplement, though its authors said more research was needed to establish whether that should change advice on which form to recommend [19]. So lichen D3 is the better default, and D2, which the British Dietetic Association calls a plant-based alternative suitable for vegans, still raises total blood levels, only by less [8][14].