Written by Catherine Saxelby
on Monday, 21 October 2013.
Tagged: antioxidants, vitamins
From curing the common cold to fighting off cancer, vitamin C (ascorbic acid) has been under study for many different health problems. Chemically known as ascorbic acid, it is a water-soluble nutrient found largely in vegetables, salads, fruits and juices. It cannot be stored and exits the body via your urine. It first came to light in the mid-1700s when the British navy were searching for a treatment for scurvy, a terrible condition that plagued many of their sailors on long ocean voyages without access to anything fresh for weeks or months.
Most animals produce their own vitamin C, but humans (and guinea pigs) cannot. For this reason, humans must eat ample amounts of vitamin C every day. Here's how ....
Free radicals are compounds formed when our bodies convert the food we eat into energy. People are also exposed to free radicals in the environment from cigarette smoke, air pollution, and ultraviolet light from the sun.
The Recommended Dietary Intakes for vitamin C per day are:
(NHMRC Australia 2006):
26 mg for babies (0 to 6 months) AI
30 mg for babies (7 to 12 months) AI
35 mg for children (1 to 8 years)
40 mg for children (9 to 18 years)
45 mg for adults (19 to 70+ years)
55-60 mg for pregnant women
80-85 mg for breastfeeding women.
mg means milligrams
If you smoke, add an additional 50 mg of vitamin C to the above figures.
Safe upper limit for vitamin C
Stick to 1000 mg – this is a prudent limit although many people take more eg 2000 mg (2 grams) to 3000 mg (3 grams) as supplements during winter. There doesn't appear to be significant side effects and how much you consume will be limited by diarrhoea and upset stomach.
Vitamin C is found in a wide range of fresh fruit and vegetables, the most widely consumed being the citrus fruit and their juices (orange, mandarin, grapefruit, lemon, lime, tangelo). However many other fruit and vegetables have a higher concentration weight for weight and it's worth seeing how many of these you can fit into your daily meals.
My Top 20 sources
Concentration by weight per 100g listed in descending order:
Source: Foodworks 2009
Prolonged heating destroys a lot of the vitamin C in fresh produce so it pays to cook your veggies lightly (steam or microwave is the kindest) and eat plenty of fresh fruit and raw salads.
Many juices have added vitamin C so you can use these to top up your intake from fresh food.
Eat an orange as a snack | 70 |
Buy a freshly-squeezed juice 300ml | 100 |
Make a Greek salad with tomato 45, capsicum 95 and parsley 30 | 170 |
Have fresh strawberries 50 for dessert with ice-cream or yoghurt | 50 |
As vitamin C deficiency progresses:
If you have a lemon or orange tree, count yourself lucky. Here’s me checking out the oranges growing at Mendooran in country NSW.
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