The Winter Vitamin - Vitamin C

Undoubtedly  vitamin c would be the most widely known vitamin to most people these days. That fact is not overly surprising as the human body requires vitamin c for at least 300 functions and more.  Vitamin c has been proved to boost protection against heart disease, cancer and a number of other serious illnesses.

In fact without  vitamin c the body would not have the ability to heal itself. The reason being that vitamin c is essential for the formation of collagen. Anyone suffering from a cut or an injury requires collagen in order to help repair the damage. Without adequate vitamin c this would be almost impossible. Therefore collagen has numerous functions in the body. These also include keeping the organs in place.

Vitamin c also acts as an antioxidant for the body and assists other vitamins and minerals to be more efficiently absorbed by the body. Folic acid and iron require vitamin c in order to maximise their usefulness. We all know that the more vitamin c in the body, the better defence we have against colds and other common ailments. Even though vitamin c may not eliminate the chance of  a person contracting a virus  it does help speed up recovery from such illness.

Practically every fruit and vegetable contains some vitamin c, however various fruits and vegies contain far higher  vitamin c content than others. For example cranberries and melons have high vitamin c content. Tropical fruits contain the highest vitamin c content of all fruit. You may be surprised to learn that hot peppers are amongst the richest sources of  vitamin c amongst the vegetable family. In fact the hotter the pepper, the higher its c vitamin content. Sadly, the  vitamin c  is water soluble which means many vegetables lose their effectiveness as a c vitamin provider if they are boiled for an excessive period of time. Steaming or quick stir frying vegetables ensures that more of their c vitamin content is retained. The recommended daily amount of the c vitamin is easily obtained from eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day if they are consumed raw or cooked quickly.

People should consider taking  vitamin c supplements as these are extremely useful to ensure we obtain sufficient vitamin c. Generally though with a balanced diet the amount of  vitamin c the body receives should be sufficient. Nevertheless, if you feel tired or lethargic then a c vitamin supplement may assist to overcome this.

And as us Aussies move into full winter it’s a good time to take some vitamin c supplements to ward off the nasty bugs now floating around.