Have I had enough Vitamin C today?!
Am I getting enough vitamin C? Sorry if this question sounds ridiculous, I know how silly it may seem to you.
scottie x
Answers: OK so today I have had 2 bananas, 1 apple, a tomato, and a glass of bluberry & blackcurrant smoothie.
Am I getting enough vitamin C? Sorry if this question sounds ridiculous, I know how silly it may seem to you.
scottie x
How much you need each:
? 40mg for adult women and men
Why you need it:
Vitamin C is essential for the formation of collagen, which constitutes a major part of the connective tissue. This means it’s important for healthy skin, bones, cartilage and teeth and helps to heal wounds. Vitamin C also helps to prevent anaemia by assisting the absorption of iron. This vitamin is also a powerful antioxidant and so can help to protect the body against the harmful effects of cell-damaging free radicals that may increase the risk of heart disease and cancer.
Good food sources:
Fruit and vegetables are the main sources of vitamin C. Good sources include blackcurrants, berries, green leafy vegetables like Brussels sprouts, cabbage, spinach and broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, kiwi fruit, citrus fruits and their juices.
Too little:
Vitamin C is water-soluble and cannot be stored in the body, so it’s essential that vitamin C rich foods are consumed on a daily basis. A deficiency can lead to a loss of appetite, muscle cramps, dry skin, split hairs, bleeding gums, bruising, nose bleeds, infections and poor would healing. In severe cases scurvy develops, although this is uncommon in Britain.
Top tip:
Vitamin C is easily destroyed so take care when preparing and cooking vegetables to minimise losses. Keep vegetables in large pieces, prepare them just before they are to be cooked rather than leaving them to stand in water and steam rather than boil them. Cook them for the minimum amount of time too. If you do decide to boil veg, don’t add salt and use the cooking water to make gravies or sauces. Avoid adding bicarbonate of soda to the water too, as it speeds up the rate at which vitamin C is destroyed. Eat veg as soon as possible after cooking to prevent further losses, which occur when they’re kept warm. Finally, frozen veg often have a higher vitamin C content than poor quality 'fresh' produce because they’re prepared shortly after being picked.
How to get enough:
Food Vitamin C Content (mg)
1/2 red pepper
112
200ml glass of orange juice
78
100g fresh strawberries
77
90g boiled broccoli
40
1 kiwi fruit
35
1 tomato
14
hi scottie, thought you might this useful! :)x
i think so
Vitamins are basically poisons that our body can not live without. There are 2 types. 1 are fat soluble and we don't need a regular supply and can easily get sick from eating too much (Dog livers actually contain a toxic amount of vitamin A).
Vitamin C is water soluble. Which means we piss it away every day. So we need to get it regularly and unlike vitamin A it is hard to overdose on it (though I am sure that you can).
Some health professionals, including doctors, have advocated that eating huge amounts of vitamin C will prevent and cure many diseases. But there is little firm evidence for this.
But lack of vitamin C will make you feel tired, increase the chance of things like ulcers in the mouth and so on.
How much do you need. Well that is not so easy. Tomatos that are ripe have more than those that are green. But the tomatos that you buy in the shop are usually green, even if they look red, so are not very tasty and have less vitamin C.
But yes, you have had plenty of fruit today. Bananas and tomatos are high in vitamin C. Citrus fruits (like oranges) are usually the best sauce, but the combination that you have had should be more than enough.
Yes, it is recommended that you have around 75 mg of vitamin c a day. You have had about 85.
Perhaps, mainly from the blackcurrants. It depends on how many blackcurrants went into your smoothie. 3 oz of blackcurrants will provide the RDA. A little from the tomato as well, and fairly insignificant amounts from the rest. Blueberries are a good source of antioxidants and apples a good source of pectin, but they both have only small amounts of vitamin C.
Contrary to popular belief, citrus fruits are NOT the best source of vitamin C. However they are very good sources as one orange provides half the daily requirement of vitamin C. The best sources are rose hips, acerola cherries and the camu-camu fruit, all of which provide over 40 to 50 times the vitamin C of oranges, ounce for ounce.
Other excellent sources of vitamin C are blackcurrants and green/red peppers (four times as much as oranges), broccoli (raw, twice as much as oranges) and strawberries (a little more than oranges).
Citrus fruits rose to prominence as vitamin C sources because they are relatively cheap, keep for a fairly long time and are easy to transport. All this was important back in the seafaring days of the 18th century. There are many fruits and veggies which dwarf all citrus fruits in their vitamin C content. I only listed some. Unless you specifically like citrus fruits, there is no reason to include them daily as vitamin C sources if you consume other good sources of vitamin C. I hate all citrus fruits and I get more than enough vitamin C from other fruits and vegetables. It's just that orange juice is ubiquitous in all restaurants, so it's convenient to order that when travelling (apple juice is not a good source, unless fortified).
My favorite easy way to get vitamin C is the Bolthouse Farms smoothie made from acerola cherries and mango juice. It is delicious, with a very tropical flavor. I highly recommend it. Just one bottle (1 liter) gives you nearly 50 times the RDA. It's still quite harmless in these amounts. If you're concerned, just space it out over a week.