The Minnesota salon owner who organized a bikini parade to increase awareness of getting your vitamin D level checked in light of vitamin D’s connection with breast cancer risk reduction responded to a column in the Mankota Free Press chastising her efforts.

“It is sad that Free Press News Editor Kathy Vos, a breast cancer survivor herself, could be so uninformed about Vitamin D, its well-documented role in cancer risk reduction and the fact that sunshine exposure is the body’s most natural and abundant source,” Cynthia Frederick, owner of Electric Beach in Mankato, Minn., wrote. “Now that I have processed Vos’ July 28 Free Press column sarcastically chastising the Vitamin D-breast cancer awareness parade I organized, I realize her misunderstanding about this issue is exactly why I organized a bikini parade in Madison Lake and why I remain committed to increasing Vitamin D awareness.”

Vos wrote a column full of sarcasm about the event, but did not speak to Frederick before doing so.

“Vos did not call me prior to writing what many of my colleagues and I read as a flip commentary about what her oncologist apparently hadn’t told her regarding Vitamin D. It appeared she had not read any of the hundreds of peer-reviewed studies that connect Vitamin D deficiency with higher risk of many forms of cancer,” Frederick wrote.

Frederick’s main point: “Sun exposure is the body’s most natural source of Vitamin D. If you believe that nature was wrong and you choose to avoid the sun, you can get Vitamin D from supplements.”

To read Frederick’s full letter click here.