It’s that vitamin C time of year! Winter is upon us which means a lot of us are adding more fruit like oranges to our shopping basket and reaching for our vitamin C supplements. Our immune systems need a bit of boost about now to ward off the cold and flus doing the rounds. Which is where vitamin C comes in handy. Vitamin C is best known for improving immunity. But there's so much more to this vitamin than just helping us fight a cold. Today we're taking a look at the wealth of health benefits of vitamin C as well as ways to work this wonder vitamin into our diets.
What is Vitamin C?
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin. Our body doesn't naturally produce vitamin C or store it so it's important to get it through our diet. Like Vitamin A, Vitamin C is a natural antioxidant that’s luckily found abundantly in our food supply. There are lots of health benefits of vitamin C - it’s important for your immunity, healthy skin, and a variety of other bodily functions.
The Health Benefits of Vitamin C
There are so many good reasons to make sure you're getting a decent vitamin C fix. Here are some of the health benefits of vitamin C:
- Vitamin C acts as an antioxidant in the body to lower physical and emotional stress.
- It provides cellular support and protection. Vitamin C acts at a cellular level to both fight and prevent free radicals from harming the immune system.
- It’s important for maintaining healthy skin, hair, nails, and prevents aging due to the way it fights off free radicals and supports collagen production in the body.
- Within the tissues, Vitamin C can also help combat stress and prevent inflammation, making it vital if you suffer high levels of stress either mentally or physically, or are simply active.
- Vitamin C also helps increase iron absorption in the body. As you’ll see below, by adding more vitamin C to your meals in the form of greens, vegetables, fruits, seeds, nuts, seaweeds and more, you can be sure your body will have a better chance of receiving the iron it needs.
- Finally, it can also help speed up digestion and may help prevent irregularity.
Recommended Daily Allowance
Women over the age of 18 years old should take in 75 milligrams per day and men over the age of 18 years old should take in at least 90 milligrams per day. If you eat fruits and vegetables daily, you won’t have to worry about getting enough. All fruits and vegetables provide good or extremely high levels of Vitamin C, making it easy to get enough.
Dietary sources
Vitamin C is found abundantly in vegetables and fruits of all kinds, from the most basic which you’ll find at your local greengrocer or independent health food shop, to more elite super foods from across the world. To reap some of the many health benefits of Vitamin C, include some of these great sources in your diet:
- All leafy greens
- All vegetables
- All fruits (fresh and dried)
- Chestnuts
- Sauerkraut and Kimchi (fermented foods)
- Apple cider vinegar
- Cacao beans (nibs, powder)
- Green super food powders
- Super food berries (mulberries, golden berries, goji berries)
Looking to get a vitamin C boost? Shop Vitamin C supplements on Evergreen.ie here.
Checked and updated: 5 September 2021
