Eat More Vitamin C

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is a water soluble antioxidant vitamin that helps control infection, neutralize free radicals and aid in the body's absorption of iron. It also helps to make collagen, which is vital to the health of teeth, gums, bones and blood vessels.


Unlike most animals on the planet, humans are incapable of manufacturing their own source of vitamin C, so it's one area of nutrition that requires daily attention and "restocking". Good sources of vitamin C include any food that contains at least ten percent of the recommended daily allowance per serving, and the wonderful news for anyone aiming to increase their intake of vitamin C is that this covers a vast range of healthy food, and it won't be difficult for you to improve your intake of vitamin C.

Understand the value of increasing (or improving) your vitamin C intake

Vitamin C is an important micronutrient in the human diet. It has a role in sustaining memory, helps to prevent cell mutations and premature aging, prevents oxidation of fatty foods, and supports the immune system.

• Note that there is no strong scientific evidence proving that vitamin C stops the common cold. It may ease the cold and perhaps shorten its duration but it's not likely to prevent it.

• Be aware that most people should be able to get adequate vitamin C from a healthy, nutritionally optimized diet. If you're eating nothing but fast food, be prepared for some major changes!

• If you are stressed, it is very likely that your vitamin C is being depleted. Ongoing stress uses up vitamin C rapidly, so adding more vitamin C containing food to your diet during stressful periods of your life makes good nutritional and common sense.

• Vitamin C counteracts some of the inhibitors in foods, such as phytates in whole grains and tannins in teas and coffee.

Notice the signs of possible vitamin C deficiency

While you should always raise health concerns direct with your doctor or health professional, the following signs can accompany a vitamin C deficiency: bleeding gums and nose, poor healing of cuts, fatigue, and lowered immunity to infection. Scurvy is a disease brought on by a lack of vitamin C in the diet; while fewer people in developed countries suffer from vitamin C deficiency to this extent nowadays, its onset can be very fast if vitamin C is not in the diet for about four weeks. 

Those liable to scurvy include the elderly, illicit drug users, alcoholics, the mentally ill, dependents given inadequate care, those suffering from eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, smokers (smokers need more vitamin C to deal with the added stress on the body), and fussy eaters.

Be aware that you need to ingest vitamin C daily 

Vitamin C does not stay in the body; it needs to be constantly replenished, so a big meal of oranges today will boost today's vitamin C but tomorrow you'll need more. It is thought that adults need around 45 mg minimum per day, with the optimal amount being around 90 mg for men and 75 mg for women;while teen guys need 75 mg per day and teen girls need 65 mg per day. Pregnant and nursing mothers need 75g – 120 mg per day. Whatever you consume in excess is usually excreted. 

High doses of vitamin C are not considered to be toxic, with the proviso that they do increase iron absorption which can be a problem for for people suffering from hemachromatosis (iron overload disease) and too much vitamin C can cause abdominal pain, nausea, headaches, fatigue, kidney stones, and diarrhea. So how do you know you're getting enough? Here are some examples of how many micrograms of vitamin C you're getting with certain types of food (per average serving), all the while noting just how easy it is to meet your daily requirement:

• Raw pineapple 16mg, asparagus 31 mg, grapefruit 26 mg, broccoli raw 89 mg, sundried tomatoes in oil 101 mg, raw parsley 133 mg, etc. An apple contains so many phytonutrients that it has an antioxidant equivalent of 1000 milligrams of vitamin C. And take advantage of the incredible virtues of citrus fruit: one cup of grapefruit will provide your entire day's needs of vitamin C, a glass of orange juice is the equivalent of 165 percent of your daily vitamin C need and the vitamin C in citrus will help curb stress by lowering stress hormone levels and possibly by reducing blood pressure, boost your energy by helping you to absorb iron better, and provide other essential phytonutrients that work in tandem with vitamin C, some of which aid memory.

• Check out the nutritional chart produced by your government's health department with respect to recommended daily intake for vitamin C and the sources. It's likely you'll be pleasantly surprised how easy it is to vary your diet to include some of your fortified cereal and processed products as well as the good old fruit and vegetables suggested in later steps of this article.

 Look after your food sources of vitamin C 

Vitamin C does not last in storage, and is steadily lost the longer the food item is stored. As such, be prepared to eat your food as fresh as possible rather than leaving it to linger in the refrigerator or pantry. For example, leaving your broccoli in the fridge and then boiling it will reduce the vitamin C content considerably compared to freshly picking the broccoli and steaming it that same day. It's a good motivation to become a veggie gardener even if you just grow a few balcony broccoli or potatoes in a bag or barrel!

• Wash fresh fruits and vegetables and then allow them to dry. Store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator and eat them within a few days.

• Do not soak them or store them in water because the vitamin C dissolves out of the plant into the water. Vitamin C also leaches out in cooking water.

Know which sources of vitamin C are the best


  Fresh food is the best source of vitamin C and most fruit and vegetables contain vitamin C. In particular, aim to eat food from the cabbage family, red and green peppers, potatoes, blackcurrants, strawberries, citrus fruit, and tomatoes.

• Eat plenty of green, leafy vegetables. This includes broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and collard greens. Eat the vegetables raw or steam them, using only a small amount of water, to maximize the amount of vitamins the vegetables retain.

• Choose fresh and frozen fruits with high vitamin C levels, such as grapefruit, oranges and other citrus fruit, as well as strawberries, cantaloupe, mango, guava, and papaya. All berries are great sources of vitamin C.

• Have a salad with spinach leaves instead of lettuce. Spinach is a better source of vitamin C when eaten raw. Toss in green and red bell peppers and tomatoes for added vitamin C.

• Eat the skin when having a baked potato, as the skin has the highest concentration of vitamin C.

• Use plenty of tomato sauce on your pasta, pizza or vegetables. Or, have a cup of tomato soup with your lunch or drink a glass of tomato juice. Tomatoes are a great source of vitamin C no matter how you eat them.

Take care when counting juice as part of your vitamin C intake


Juice is calorie dense and you lack the roughage and other benefits of eating the fruit when consuming it as juice. However, everyone likes having juice now and then and you can increase your intake of vitamin C from juice by doing the following:

• Recognizing that juice with pulp is better for you than juice without it. This is because vitamin C is better absorbed if it is consumed in the presence of bioflavonoids and these are found mostly in the pulp and not in the juice.

• Make fresh squeezed orange juice or purchase frozen concentrate instead of premixed, ready-to-drink refrigerated cartons. Frozen concentrates have significantly more vitamin C in them because the pasteurization process destroys some of the vitamin C.

• Refrigerate leftover juice and drink it within a few days after mixing the concentrate or opening the package. Once opened, juices loose their vitamin C at a rate of 2 percent per day.

• Make your own vitamin C booster by making rosehip syrup.As an added bonus, this syrup is one that children will lap up.

Tips

•  Even if you take a vitamin C supplement, such as a multivitamin containing a synthetic vitamin C, it is still important to eat foods with real vitamin C. Real Vitamin C contains other components that synthetic C doesn't have, such as bioflavonoids, ascorbic acid and rutin, among others.

• If selecting a multivitamin, check the back for the Daily Value provided by the multivitamin. It should provide 100 percent but no more than 300 percent of the Daily Value for all nutrients it provides.

• Some products, such as cold breakfast cereals, are fortified with vitamin C. These products contain at least 25 percent of the recommended daily allowance.

• "Mg" stands for "milligram" and "ug" is micrograms. Note that 1 milligram equals 1,000 micrograms.

• Note that the amounts of vitamin C suggested to be taken per adult and per teen may vary depending on your source of information. Ask your doctor for more guidance.

• Be aware that Dr. Andrew Weil says that the body can only make use of 200 micrograms of vitamin C per day. You may wish to do your own research on the amounts required in the body. As stated earlier, a typical person consuming a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet will be likely to obtain all the vitamins that he or she requires.

• Antioxidants work best in unison. The best known antioxidants are vitamin A, beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E and the mineral selenium, so aiming to combine foods with each of these elements is a sensible nutritional approach.

 Warnings

•  Signs of a vitamin C deficiency, also known as scurvy, may include bruising easily, slow-healing wounds, frequent infections and joint pain and swelling. More advanced signs of deficiency may lead to hair and tooth loss.

• Vitamins are not drugs and they are not miracle cures.

• Drinking too much alcohol flushes vitamin C from the body.