en public specific review article &nbsp;<br> <strong>Background: </strong>In recent decades, much interest has been focused on investigating new roles of vitamin D in human body beyond the mineral-ion homeostasis. <strong>Methods:</strong> By searching medical databases such as PubMed, over 16000 articles were found which have been published since 2000 on novel aspects of vitamin D in health and diseases. <strong>Results:</strong> Of great interest was the effects of vitamin D on decreasing the risk of several chronic illnesses, including common cancers, autoimmune, infectious, and cardiovascular diseases. In this review, the new roles of vitamin D that have recently been investigated were addressed. <strong>Conclusions</strong>: Due to the vast prevalence of vitamin D deficiency worldwide, it seems that time has come to conduct well-designed clinical trials and meta-analysis to explore the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation in treatment of common diseases. Finally, the progression in cellular and molecular methods and technology will shed new lights on vitamin D roles in health and disease. Vitamin D, Antioxidant, Inflammation, Gastrointestinal diseases, Depression 231 234 http://jnfs.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-39&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Reza Amani Yes Food Security Research Center, Department. of Clinical Nutrition, School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran Nasrin Sharifi No Research Center for Biochemistry and Nutrition in Metabolic Diseases, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran