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In general, we all know that vitamins are vital and should be taken in great quantities to remain healthy. During the recent health scare, many are beginning to especially recognize the importance of vitamins to strengthen the body’s immune system and prevent getting sick often. This is because some people are not getting enough vitamins from the food they eat. Vitamin deficiency has been found to be quite common among pregnant women, people with chronic diseases, children, and the elderly. As a result, there is a growing awareness of the importance of vitamins for optimum health. More importantly, most people know that taking vitamins can help us live longer and healthier lives.1
It is important to ensure that your diet contains the right nutrients to get the vitamins and nutrients you need. In particular, it is important to ensure that your diet contains a sufficient amount of vitamins A, C, E, B12, riboflavin, potassium, magnesium, thiamine, niacin, and phosphorus.2 Ideally, you should include foods that contain at least six servings of these nutrients per day, with the highest amounts coming from enriched cereals, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, and carrots. If you don’t have this type of rich in these vitamins and nutrients in your diet, consider taking supplements to make up for this lack.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, meaning it must be absorbed into the bloodstream in order for its effects to be felt. It is found in many foods, including fruits, vegetables, and meats.3 Vitamin C deficiency can result in a variety of medical conditions including bleeding, anemia, osteoporosis, cancer, fever, and infections. It has been said that a diet lacking in vitamin C can lead to the weakening of the bones and impaired immune function. However, there is not enough evidence to suggest that vitamin C deficiency causes any harm.4
Vitamin C is a nutrient that helps build and maintain strong bones, teeth, cartilage, gums, skin blood vessels. It also has anti-inflammatory properties. You can get vitamin C from citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruits as well as green vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower. Vitamins are essential to our lives because they help us grow muscles or make food taste better. They provide an extra boost of energy for when we need it the most!5
What Are the Benefits of Vitamin C?
In today’s world, what are the benefits of vitamin C? The first benefit of vitamin C is strengthening your body’s defenses. Vitamin C is an effective antioxidant, which can strengthen your immune system. Antioxidants do this by blocking the action of oxygen on cells, thereby causing a reduction in the number of free radicals that would otherwise damage your cells.6
When free radicals accumulate, they tend to promote a condition called oxidative stress, which is linked to several common colds and other infections. Consuming foods rich in antioxidants such as vitamin C can reduce the risks of developing these infections.7 For instance, vitamin C can reduce the risk of getting a common cold or even common flu. Some foods that have vitamin C are bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, salmon, and spinach.8
Of course, eating healthy and taking vitamin C isn’t enough for optimal health. You also need a healthy diet rich in antioxidants, and water-soluble fiber to help filter out toxins from your system. The benefits of vitamin C and water-soluble fiber are two things you can’t do without if you want to stay healthy. Combining these two superfoods with daily exercise will give you a well-rounded lifestyle that gives you many health benefits.
For instance, vitamin C is proven to improve circulation and increase blood flow to the brain. Studies have shown that when vitamin C is combined with beta carotene (a type of vegetable pigment), it doubles its antioxidant effect. Water-soluble fiber acts as a filter to absorb oxygen from your cells, and when this happens it prevents radicals from roaming free throughout your entire body.9 It has also been proven that regular consumption of fruits containing a level of lycopene (the highest level of vitamin C) will provide your body with up to twice the number of antioxidants found in oranges. Combine these two powerful nutrients and you’ll get a healthy body free from disease and pain.10
How Much Vitamin C Do You Need for Optimal Health?
Experts suggest that children under the age of six should consume at least five hundred to one thousand milligrams of vitamin C per day. Foods that have the highest vitamin C content include sweet potatoes, bell peppers, carrots, green spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, tuna, salmon, and strawberries. The benefits of vitamin C don’t just stop there!11
When taken with acidophilus, vitamin C works as a probiotic to boost your digestive system and help your body heal wounds faster.12 As an added bonus, taking vitamin C with vitamin E will also increase the benefits of vitamin C. It has been proven that taking vitamin C with vitamin E supplements will give you an increased lifetime risk of cancer of the mouth and stomach, but taking vitamin C alone has no studies proving this.
What Foods Have the Most Vitamin C For Absorption?
If you are looking for what foods have the most vitamin C benefits, it’s time to take a look at the fruits and vegetables that are packed full of this powerful antioxidant. Fruits and vegetables are the richest dietary sources of vitamin C. The Acai berry, for example, has twice the vitamin C of orange juice and a hundred times the vitamin C of strawberries and red oranges. Other fruits and vegetables, such as strawberries, broccoli, peppers, and peaches, contain even more vitamin C. All foods with vitamin C are great for your health; in fact, they are essential to your good health! If you don’t get enough vitamin C in your diet, your immune system won’t be able to fight off the free radicals that cause disease and aging.
When you eat foods with vitamin C the antioxidant activity stops. This makes your body unable to make as much of the vitamin as it needs. Foods with vitamin C deficiency include almost all fruits and vegetables – accepting kiwi fruit, which contains only trace amounts. Since the body is not able to make as much vitamin C as it needs, some of it gets lost through vitamin loss. Vitamin C deficiency can be serious because vitamin C is essential for collagen formation and the maintenance of healthy skin and teeth.13
There are foods that are high in vitamin C and those that are not. Some of these are apricots, broccoli, citrus fruits, cherries, citrus vegetables, grapefruit, oranges, peaches, prunes, strawberries, spinach, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes.14 So if you’re looking to boost your vitamin C levels, then it would be a good idea to eat lots of these foods! Of course, if there’s any way you could possibly eat less of the foods that you need to ensure you’re getting enough vitamin C – then do so. Otherwise, avoid eating cruciferous vegetables altogether.
However, eating the right amount of vitamin c is not enough to get your desired level of absorption. To get the highest absorption rate possible, take a look at this vitamin’s molecular structure. If you look closely at vitamin c, you’ll see that it has a repeating sequence of carbon atoms that is only possible due to the way it is made – unique only to vitamin c. This helps make vitamin c more absorbable and helps increase its tissue concentration level. So the next time you want to know what foods have the most vitamin C for absorption, remember to eat plenty of cruciferous vegetables. That way, you can ensure that you’re getting what you need to keep your skin looking young and healthy.
Why Does Vitamin C Deficiency Affect Our Immune System?
When your body doesn’t get enough vitamin C, its ability to produce the cells and antibodies needed to fight disease gets compromised. When vitamin C deficiency affects the immune system, our chances of getting sick are increased. And when we get sick, our bodies ability to heal reduces.
How can vitamin C protect cells from oxidative stress? Oxidative stress happens when the body is exposed to oxygen molecules. It’s a natural occurrence in our body, and it’s actually beneficial – if the antioxidant present in the antioxidant cell is able to neutralize the free radicals before they attack healthy cells.15 Most vitamins have this property, and they are able to protect cells from oxidative stress.
Image Credits
Vinmec / 2019
Amino Apps / December 13, 2018
Go Stuffs / 2021
My Food Data / July 28, 2021
Amazon / 2021
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2 “Why are Vitamins Important? | Centrum.” https://www.centrum.com/learn/why-are-vitamins-important/ Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
3 “Vitamin C – Health Professional Fact Sheet – Office of Dietary ….” 26 Mar. 2021, https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminC-HealthProfessional/ Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
4 “Vitamin C – Mayo Clinic.” https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements-vitamin-c/art-20363932 Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
5 “Vitamin C – Mayo Clinic.” https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements-vitamin-c/art-20363932 Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
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7 “The Benefits of Vitamin C – WebMD.” 12 Sep. 2020, https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/the-benefits-of-vitamin-c Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
8 “Vitamin C: Why we need it, sources, and how much is too much.” https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/219352 Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
9 “Dietary fiber: Essential for a healthy diet – Mayo Clinic.” https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/fiber/art-20043983 Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
10 “Soluble vs. Insoluble Fiber: What’s the Difference? – Healthline.” https://www.healthline.com/health/soluble-vs-insoluble-fiber Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
11 “By the way, doctor: What’s the right amount of vitamin C for me?.” https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/by-the-way-doctor-whats-the-right-amount-of-vitamin-c-for-me Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
12 “Vitamin C – Health Professional Fact Sheet – Office of Dietary ….” 26 Mar. 2021, https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminC-HealthProfessional/ Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
13 “20 Foods That Are High in Vitamin C – Healthline.” 5 Jun. 2018, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-c-foods Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
14 “Foods With Vitamin C Besides Oranges – WebMD.” 8 Oct. 2020, https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/ss/slideshow-vitamin-c-sources Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
15 “What is oxidative stress? Effects on the body and how to reduce.” 3 Apr. 2019, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324863 Accessed 17 Aug. 2021.
