Whole Food Nutrition
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a water-soluble nutrient and vitamin essential
for life and for maintaining optimal health. It is also known by
the chemical name of its principal form ascorbic acid. It is
used by the body for many purposes.
Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, helps to maintain healthy
collagen in the skin, repair damaged tissue, promote healthy
teeth and bones, and boost the immune system.
Vitamin C is one of the more powerful and well-known
antioxidants. Just as exposing a cut apple to air causes it to
quickly turn brown, cells of the body can also suffer damage
when exposed to oxygen, a process known as oxidation. Oxidation
causes aging of the skin as well as all other organs and tissues
of the body. Vitamin C, as a free-radical fighter, helps ward
off wrinkles and many illnesses linked to oxidation, including
cataracts, arthritis, heart disease, and cancer.
How powerful is Vitamin C? Listen to what the experts have said
about this remarkable nutrient. Dr. James Enstrom of UCLA has
been quoted as saying that "A thirty-five-year-old man who eats
Vitamin C-rich foods and takes Vitamin C supplements will slash
his chances of heart disease death by two thirds and live 6.3
years longer". And according to the late Dr. Linus Pauling--a
two-time Nobel Laureate and perhaps history's strongest advocate
for the benefits of Vitamin C--supplemental doses of Vitamin C
could add as much as twelve to eighteen years to our lives (Dr.
Pauling also held the belief that ascorbic acid held the cure to
the common cold).
Are such claims unfounded? Well, as of yet, there is no proof
that vitamin C can cure the common cold, though, as an immune
system strengthener, ascorbic acid can certainly help alleviate
the symptoms of a cold. However, when it comes to longevity,
life extension, antiaging, what have you, evidence has been
produced to validate the claim that Vitamin C can improve life
expectancy. One analysis of the dietary consumption of eleven
thousand individuals found that getting 300 milligrams daily of
Vitamin C could add as much as six years to the life of a man
and as much as two years to the life of a woman.
Vitamin C functions as an anti-inflammatory, and helps the body
fight inflammatory diseases, including arthritis, fibromyalgia,
and chronic fatigue. A multitude of other conditions may be
improved vitamin C, including angina, bronchitis, bruises,
canker sores, constipation, diabetes, eyestrain, gingivitis,
glaucoma, hangover, infertility, joint pain, rashes, rosacea,
shingles, sore throat, sprains, sunburn, and yeast infections,
urinary tract infections, and scurvy (a disease caused by
vitamin C deficiency). Because vitamin C helps the body absorb
iron, it is also useful in treating iron deficiency and anemia.
Almost all animals and plants synthesize their own vitamin C.
There are some exceptions, such as humans and a small number of
other animals, including, apes, guinea pigs, the red-vented
bulbul, a fruit-eating bat and a species of trout. This has led
some scientists, including chemist Linus Pauling to hypothesize
that these species either lost (or never had) the ability to
produce their own Vitamin C, and that if their diets were
supplemented with an amount of the nutrient proportional to the
amount produced in animal species that do synthesize their own
Vitamin C, better health would result.
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