Antioxidant Zone

Vitamin C Natural Sources

Most people today are aware that antioxidants are available in their natural form in fruit and vegetables.

For sometime now vitamin c rich exotic fruits have been in the news - fruits like the acai or others that are extremely rich, not only with vitamin C, but also with a whole bunch of antioxidants. and there is now doubt that they are extremely good for your health.

However we do have some well known fruits and vegetables easily available that are very healthy for us.

Some important vitamin C food sources, are:

• Citrus Fruit (oranges, grapefruit, lemon)
• Black Currants
• Mangoes
• Strawberries
• Tomato
• Sweet Red Pepper
• Broccoli
• Kiwi
• Spinach
• Guava
• Papaya

An important aspect of vitamin C and the fact that it is water soluble, is that when foods, vegetables, for example, are boiled a portion of the vitamin C content also evaporates.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are the answer, but it is not easy to keep a consistently full vitamin C diet, and so supplements are recommended.

It also appears that with age our bodies lose some of their ability to absorb vitamin C, and at the same time, due to the free radical damage, smokers also need higher levels of antioxidants, and in this case, vitamin C in particular.

When we take our vitamin C through fresh fruits or vegetables, we also receive the benefits from other proteins and and antioxidants in these foods.

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Our bodies don’t manufacture their own vitamin C, as most animals do, and we cannot store it and so we must recover our vitamin C levels continuously.

The natural way of doing this is through food - fruit and vegetables.

Vitamin C is water soluble and for us this means that when we obtain our vitamin C from fresh fruit or vegetables our bodies are perfectly equipped to eliminate any excess.

Vitamin C supplements are available in liquid form or in more easily absorbed forms.

The Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin C has been upgraded from 60 milligrams a day per adult, to 75 mg for women and 90 mg for men.

For smokers the RDA is set at 125 mg for males and 110 mg for women. (Tobacco smoke is a known generator of free radicals that damage cells).

Some researches are pointing to better results with higher amounts - taken in its natural form or as a soluble supplement.

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Vitamin C is also known as ascorbic acid. As an antioxidant prevents and repairs damage done to our cells by free radicals.

As it is needed for the synthesis of collagen (a protein present in bones, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, [...] Continue Reading…

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Both my mother and grandmother (in fact my great grandmother as well) would tell me that vitamin C helps prevent colds and that the best source was fresh orange juice.

Well things haven’t changed and various scientific reports are confirming [...] Continue Reading…

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