Toronto, Dec 28 (IANS): Next time you go out in the sun to get some Vitamin D, think about mushrooms.

Why mushrooms? Well, this is what is going to be your best source of Vitamin D soon.

In order to give mushrooms a vitamin D boost, researchers exposed them to quick pulses of ultraviolet light. And voila! In less than a second, a mushroom with effectively no vitamin D had plenty of it!

"The exciting thing I think is how rapidly we can take a mushroom that has no vitamin D in it whatsoever, and in less than one second we can increase the vitamin D content to over 100 percent (of the recommended daily allowance)," Michael Kalaras, scholar at Penn State University in Pennsylvania, was quoted as saying in Toronto Star.

Quick pulses of ultraviolet light flash over the mushroom's surface set off a chemical process that converts a compound similar to cholesterol inside the mushrooms into vitamin D.

One serving of mushrooms has a day's worth of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin D, which is 600 IUs (or 15 micrograms) per day.

Researchers suggest that smaller amounts of mushrooms may be all you need if you have other sources of vitamin D in your diet.

The human body needs vitamin D to maintain bone health and helps regulate the immune system.