I just looked on the pack of my UHT milk and it has no mention of vitamins. Maybe the labels here just don't list vitamins? Hmm...

Normal milk is a broad term. We buy our milk direct from the farmer who is a dairy by taking our bottles over and filling them up direct from the vat. No labelling or the like, just full cream fabulous milk.

We run a tab and pay at the end of the month and costs 1CHF a liter

Is standard milk fortified with vitamins anywhere? I didn't know that. I've seen special cartons of fortified milk in varous places, but generally milk is just milk, right?

First off, UHT isn't "normal" milk. Secondly, I certainly hope (and expect) not. I can't imagine why they would.

I assume from context that you think it would be normal Perhaps it is in the US?), but in general I think the Swiss would support the idea that if it says milk on the bottle, it would be milk, _only_, inside the bottle.

Yup, I read somewhere that it is typical that milk gets fortified in the US hence the question. Just wondering if it's now a norm in most develop countries that we don't even realize it, but I guess not...

I'm not saying my UHT is 'normal' milk. I'm just using what I have in the fridge to make an observation. Assuming somebody else has or has seen a milk here which says fortified / angereichert, I would be interested to know the brand.

I was just listening to a pod cast from the US that said 10 mins in the sun gives you the same amount of vitamin D as drinking 300 glasses of milk. So even if milk is fortified (which I don't believe it is), the small about you get is not really going to make much difference.

In the US, most milk is Vitamin D fortified routinely - with about 100 IU/cup (http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind). Versus the sun: "If you're fair skinned, experts say going outside for 10 minutes in the midday sun—in shorts and a tank top with no sunscreen—will give you enough radiation to produce about 10,000 international units of the vitamin." http://health.usnews.com/health-news...-for-vitamin-d

milk fortification started in the 1930s when rickets was a common health problem: http://ibdcrohns.about.com/od/relate.../a/fdavitd.htm

Cool thanks for the info. I'm reading that technically you'd only need to be exposed 2-3 times a week in short intervals to get enough vitamin D, as our body stores it so well. Should've done this earlier.

On webMD it says that:

Just 6 days of casual sunlight exposure without sunscreen can make up for 49 days of no sunlight exposure. Body fat acts like a kind of storage battery for vitamin D. During periods of sunlight, vitamin D is stored in fatty fat and then released when sunlight is gone.

Except on days like today in Zurich! I moved from Seattle where most of the winter was like today here in Zurich (and I hear Zurich is like Seattle in winter) - lots of oily fishes and Vitamin D supplements for me (I don't drink a lot of milk)

In the UK it's the margarine that's fortified with vitamin D, not the milk. I think it's the same here.

Vitamin D deficiency is a serious disease and now that people are becoming more aware of the harmful effects of the sun's rays, it's becoming slightly more common. Having said that, it's often house-bound elderly that suffer from vitamin D deficiency. The problem is easily solved by adding the vitamin to a common food that's rich in fat, vitamin D being fat soluble.

I was under the impression that Vitamin D fortified foods and drinks were mostly in countries with cold climates and less sunlight ?

Margarine was banned in the UK quite some years ago. Or if not banned as such, then not allowed to be sold, which amounts to the same thing.

I think I might have seen fortified milk at Migros. I can't be sure though so please don't take my word for it.
Interesting little fact here, babies have had to be given a vitamin D supplement for their first year here in CH and now, they have to have it for the second Winter they experience as babies too.

You worry about vitamins but you choose to drink UHT milk

Everything seems to be fortified with something or other back home in Australia. It isn't a cold climate, but people don't go out in the sun and there has been a big vitamin D deficiency amongst the younger generations. Bread with folic acid, spreads and margarine with vitamin D too.

Wow - I just read that it is mandatory in Australia to have oil-based spreads and margarine fortified with vitamin D http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/...mentId-1070267

What you may not have noticed yet, is that cooking salt here has added fluoride. They don't add fluoride to the water like back home.

I'm quite against artificially fortified foods.
I find that extra vitamins can make one really jittery. I actually try and shop for non-fortified foods and drinks, eventhough it's almost impossible.
Try and find chocolate powder for instance or cereal that doesn't have extra vitamins added.

Cailler powdered cacao is not fortified. It's just plain chocolate powder & with that I make chocolate milk.

What a load of rubbish. It is legal to sell margarine in the UK (it's called a "spread" coz it sounds well cool). Order online e.g. at Ocado, or buy it in the shop of your choice.

Even respected Cancer Research organisations are saying that people should go out in the sun more to top up their vitamin D levels.

There are cases of vitamin D deficiencies in children whose parents cover them head to foot in thick sun-tan cream every time they go out in the sun.

So make sure you all get some sun!

The margarine and spreads association might have something to say about this enormous piece of disinformation!
http://www.margarine.org.uk/