B I N A R A G A . I N F O

Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)

Vitamin C is a water-soluable vitamin, and contrary to popular belief it can be stored in the body. A normal healthy person has stores of about 1,500mg of vitamin C stored in his or her body. Since signs of scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) do not show up until our reserves drop to about 300mg, that means that a healthy person has about three weeks of vitamin C in reserve. However, this does not mean that food containing vitamin C should not be consumed everyday. With insufficient vitamin C the gums bleed easily, teeth loosen, and bruises are frequent. Other symptoms are poor healing, joint pain, joint disorders, and muscle wasting. Most of the symptoms are due to a reduction in collagen production.Vitamin C is essential in the production of collagen, the connective tissue that binds cells together; and it helps to maintain capillaries, cartilage, tendons, bones, and teeth. It also helps protect vitamins A and E, and fatty acids from oxidization, and aids in the absorption of iron.

Vitamin C requirements double during pregnancy and lactation from 30mg to 60mg per day. But pregnant woman who take excessive amounts (400mg a day or more) of vitamin C from supplements, may give birth to babies with unusually high vitamin C requirements, a condition called "rebound scurvy". Contrary to popular belief, megadoses of vitamin C are not harmless. They can produce diarrhoea, nutritional imbalances, oxalate kidney stones, cardiac arrythmias (heart-beat irregularities), and interfere with the body's ability to kill bacteria. They can cause false results in urine sugar tests, and produce false-negative results in tests for blood in the stool (and thus prevent the early detection of some cancers and gastro-intestinal diseases). They can also interfere with the drugs heparin and coumadin (both of which are used to stop the blood from clotting).

Of all the vitamins, vitamin C is the most fragile. It is partly destroyed by chopping, overcooking, boiling or soaking food in water, and by exposure to air. However, if you never ate uncooked fruit or vegetables, enough vitamin C would survive the cooking process to prevent you from developing scurvy. To minimize vitamin C loss, wrap cut fruit in plastic and put juice into airtight containers before refrigerating, avoid soaking vegetables in water for long periods of time and avoid overcooking.

If possible steam or microwave your vegetables rather than boiling them. Good sources of vitamin C include blackcurrant juice, 100% orange juice, tomato juice, pineapple juice, capsicums, kiwi fruit, parsley, strawberries, oranges, lemons, potatoes, peas, green beans, melons, passionfruits, limes, mangoes, pumpkin, and silverbeet. Frozen foods normally retain a high percentage of their original vitamin C content.