Vitamin C Facts

Why you need Vitamin C

C performs numerous physiological functions such as the synthesis of collagen, carnitine, and neurotransmitters, the synthesis and catabolism of tyrosine, and the metabolism of microsome.

If you were to go completely without Vitamin C you could end up with a case of scurvy, which is a formation of liver spots on the skin, spongy gums, and bleeding from mucous membranes. Vitamin C levels have been correlated to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease.

There are many claims from scientists and doctors on many diverse benefits of vitamin C. As nutritonal science is always changing, some of the data or claims may change from time to time. Scientific research and testing seems to indicate that Vitamin C helps us to have better skin. Researchers have found eating foods high in vitamin C can protect people from polyarthritis, a form of rheumatoid arthritis that affects at least two joints. C is thought to help in burning fat as well.

Supplements or Food

Should you take supplements to get your daily dose of C? Some believe you should have between 200 mg and 2000mg of C a day. These are the megadose proponents. If they are correct, then perhaps you should; however, although I personally take supplements, I am leaning more and more toward getting as much as possible from natural sources. I believe the body can utilize the vitamins it gets in food much easier than supplement form. I think some supplements are necessary, like fish oil, since eating too much fish these days might lead to getting too much mercury, but C can be found in lots of different fruits and vegetables such as oranges, broccoli, spinach, red pepper, parsley, tomato etc. Below is a rough chart to give you an idea of some of the plants that have the highest amounts of Vitamin C.

By the way, I also personally recommend eating organic fruits and vegetables as much as possible. Some fruits and vegetables are more dangerous than others in regards to the pesticides used on them, like apples for instance, should always be organic while the thickness of an avacodo's skin makes it less likely to pass insecticide poisons to your system.

As you might imagine, there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of books available from Amazon on Vitamin C. Please browse our Amazon store pages and consider purchasing these books through our links to help support our site.

Vitamin C supplements

Plant Sources of Vitamin C