Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that the body needs in certain amounts to keep up its health. Being a water-soluble vitamin means that the body uses what it needs and then any excess of the vitamin is excreted in the urine as opposed to getting stored in the body. There is less risk of overdosing on water-soluble vitamins but taking only regulated amounts is still the safest idea.
What to Know About Vitamin C?
What to Know About Vitamin C: Vitamin C is used in the body to grow tissues and also repair them. It helps create the skin, tendons, muscle, and ligaments, and repairing them when an injury takes place. It also helps to create the scar tissue that happens as you heal and helps to keep the bones, teeth, and cartilage healthy.
Vitamin C is also an antioxidant, which goes to work in the body fighting free radicals that can cause oxidative stress. Free radicals can come from things like unhealthy foods, alcohol, cigarettes, pollution, and stress in general. Vitamin C is a key helper to combat the potential damage these things could cause in the body.
Signs of a vitamin C deficiency include anemia, trouble healing cuts and bruises, inflammation of the gums, nosebleeds, rough skin, dry hair, and trouble fighting infections off. People who smoke cigarettes and pregnant or breastfeeding women are at a higher risk of encountering a vitamin C deficiency.
Since the body does not store vitamin C and it also does not make vitamin C on its own, it is crucial to get it in foods or supplement form regularly to keep it working on your body. It is unclear whether vitamin C prevents colds but many people swear that it does and that taking it upon the start of a cold if you take it regularly can help shorten the duration. If you feel like it helps, by all means take it.
Natural sources of vitamin C include many fruits and vegetables including: cantaloupes, citrus fruits, tomatoes, kiwi, mango, papaya, pineapple, watermelon, and many berries like blueberries and raspberries. You can tell that citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruit have vitamin C by their sourness, which comes partly from the ascorbic acid that is vitamin C.
Vegetables that are good sources of vitamin C include broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, bell and hot peppers, leafy greens, spinach, cabbage, potatoes (including sweet ones), and squash.
Some food items are fortified with vitamin C to help you out when you are eating processed foods. One thing to keep in mind of getting your vitamin C from vegetables is that cooking them for long periods of time can reduce the amount of vitamin C you can ingest from them. Avoid microwaving your vegetables for this reason and incorporate some raw vegetables in things like this when you can.
Overdose of vitamin C is rare when getting it from foods or taking regular doses of supplements, but a symptom that you’re getting too much can be shown in the form of diarrhea. If you experience loose bowels consistently while taking vitamin C you might want to back off the does and see if it helps.
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