Vitamin C: The Power of Vitamins
Following our recent posts about the power of vitamins in general and why you should prefer organic food, today we’ll be focusing on how vitamin C is of fundamental importance for your health.
What is vitamin C and what is it good for?
The water-soluble vitamin C, which is also known as ascorbic acid, is mainly found in fruit and vegetables. As ascorbic acid is also known as a preservative, it is also frequently used in sausage and meat products to make them last longer. This vitamin is therefore an “antioxidant”, which means that this special chemical compound slows down or even completely prevents oxidation of other substances.
Probably some of you have already looked through the information printed on the packaging of some products. There you will come across substances like: E300, E301, E302, E303, E304, E15 or E316. These substances mean that these products contain preservatives.
Vitamin C is also involved in several metabolic processes in the body, and is responsible for the formation of connective tissue, bones and teeth. Since it has an antioxidant effect, it can also slow down or stop harmful processes or compounds in the body. These are intercepted so that healthy cells and molecules can be protected.
Vitamin deficiency symptoms
Another well-known term is the so-called “scurvy”, which is associated with the deficiency of this vitamin. In 1933, the Hungarian-American physician Szent-Györgyi identified it as an effective substance against “sailor’s disease”. Scurvy is a disease that occurs exclusively in adults. Symptoms can include joint pain, tooth loss, infections and increased bleeding in organs, skin, mucous membranes and muscles.
A common disease in children and infants can be the so-called “Moeller-Barlow disease”. This prevents proper bone formation and overall growth. However, both diseases only occur in the case of a permanent lack of this vitamin and are virtually non-existent in industrialized countries.
The optimal dose
A dose of up to 1 g vitamin C per day is recommended. A daily intake of 3 – 4 g, however, can lead to temporary gastrointestinal problems. However, there are some risk groups for whom a deviation from the normal dose has a harmful effect. These include people with a predisposition to urinary or kidney stones, people who have a problem metabolising food iron and people with kidney damage.
Which foods contain vitamin C?
Since, as mentioned at the beginning, the best sources of vitamin C are fruit and vegetables, we have listed some fruit and vegetable varieties for you here. These include:
- Peppers
- Parsley
- Berry fruits
- Citrus fruits
- Spinach
- Tomatoes
- Potatoes
- Cabbage
The concentration of this vitamin varies based on preparation, duration of storage, transport and harvesting. With many foods, further processing (such as peeling, cooking and exposure to oxygen) can result in the loss of vitamin C.
We hope you enjoyed the article and as a sugar daddy and sugar baby you have refreshed your knowledge about vitamin C!
RECOMMENDED: Computer vision syndrome
