Unfortunately, this isn’t a straight forward question. There is a wide range of recommendations
The Nutrient Reference Values for Australia are:
| Age | AI (Adequate Intake) |
| 0-50 yr | 200 IU |
| 51-70 yr | 400 IU |
| 71+ yr | 600 IU |
The Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) have the following recommendations for Vitamin D intake.
Note that these are considerably higher than the recommendations above.
| Infants 0-12 months | 0 IU/day |
| 1-18 years | 600 IU/day |
| 19-50 | 600 IU/day |
| 51-70 | 600 IU/day |
| Over 70 years old | 800 IU/day |
| Pregnant women aged 14-50 | 600 IU/day |
The Australian and the FNB’s recommendations are to achieve a 25(OH)D level of 50 nmol/L – which as I mentioned in this article is just far too low.
Many experts have publicly criticized these recommendations. My personal belief is that these recommendations will increase dramatically over the next couple of years to be more in line with current research that shows the benefits of higher levels of vitamin D.
Dr. Mercola – Who has one of the largest health websites has the following vitamin D intake recommendations. Dr. Mercola goes into detail on his site to justify these levels. These are around 10x higher than the recommendations above!
| Age | Dosage/day |
| Below 5 | 16 IU per kg per day |
| Age 5 – 10 | 2500 IU |
| Adults | 5000 IU |
| Pregnant Women | 5000 IU |
The Weston A Price Foundation – an organization that provides health and nutrition education, recommendations are:
| Children age 3 months to 12 years | 500-1000IU/day |
| Children over 12 years and adults | 1000-2000IU/day |
| Pregnant and nursing women | 2000-4000 IU/day |
Putting all this information shows the large variety in recommendations. It’s also important to note that the amount of vitamin D required for the individual will vary depending on their vitamin D status – which can only be determined by a 25(OH)D test – see this article. Illness and medical conditions can also increase the vitamin D requirement.
In my opinion, Australian, and FNBs recommendations are far too low. If I’m asked to quote numbers my recommended intakes would be:
Children <12 yrs 2000 – 3000 IU/day
Adults 3000-4000 IU/day
Pregnant and nursing women 5000 IU/day
If we assume that fermented cod liver oil carries 400 IU/ml.
- ½ tsp (2.5 ml) = 1000 IU – my recommendation for children <12yr
- 1 tsp (5 ml) = 2000 IU – my recommended dosage for over 12 yrs
- 1.5 tsp (7.5ml) = 3000 IU – my recommended dosage for pregnant or lactating women
- Note that 2 x capsules = 1ml or 400 IU
hi, does that mean we would need to take 5+ capsules per day? for adults, to get to at least 2000-3000 IU ?
That’s correct. Each capsule has 0.5 ml – so 2 x capsules = 1ml = ~800 IU vitamin D
2000 IU = 5 capsules or 2.5 ml
The liquids are more cost effective than the capsules