Posts Tagged ‘what is vitamin c’

Vitamin C - a water soluble vitamin

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
We have been discussing over the past few weeks the fat soluble vitamins.  Last week we started topeppers2 discuss Vitamin B - a water soluble vitamin and this week we will be continuing with the water soluble vitamins.  Before we begin to discuss Vitamin C let’s discuss what a water soluble vitamin is:  A water soluble vitamin is the “watery” part of any animal or plant.  Water soluble vitamins can be stored in the body, however it is difficult to overdose on water soluble vitamins because the body can discrete what it does not need and therefore toxicity is typically not seen.
To recap lets review the difference between a vitamin and mineral.  A vitamin is any compound that contains carbon and therefore is organic.  There are two classes of vitamins…fat soluble A, D, E and K or water soluble, B and C.
 Minerals on the other hand do not contain carbon and are what we call inorganic.  There are macro- minerals and micro-minerals.  Macro-minerals are calcium, chloride, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and sodium.  Micro-minerals are:  chromium, iron, copper, zinc, iodine, manganese, molybdenum, selenium and iron.
There are many factors that can decrease the absorption of vitamins and minerals they are:  alcohol, caffeine, antibiotics, stress, corticosteroids, aspirin, diuretics, oral contraceptives, sugar and tobacco.  Therefore if you lifestyle includes any of these factors and you are not well there could be a good chance that you are not absorbing your essential nutrients.  You will learn over the next few weeks the critical affect that each of the vitamins and mineral have over the health of your body.
This week we will be discussing Vitamin C
What it is:  Vitamin C also called ascorbic acid and is highly supplemented within our diet.
 
What is does:  Vitamin C:

Vitamin C has many functions that include but are not limited to:

Enhances the immune system

Essential for the formation of collagen

Detoxifies lead and other heavy metals from the body

Assists the liver in detoxifying

Increase absorption of Iron

Helps produce thyroid hormone

 

Foods that contain Vitamin C:

There are many foods (too many to list) that contain Vitamin C.  Vitamin C comes primarily from fruits and vegetables.  Here are a few of the more common sources of Vitamin C…

Red peppers

Green peppers

Guava

Yellow Peppers

Strawberries

 Papaya

Grapefruit

 Kiwi

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Kohlrabi

Kale

Cantaloupe

 

Caution!  Large amounts of vitamin C can be lost from cooking. 

Lori Metroka Yu

Nutrition & Wellness Specialist

 

Resource:  The power of nutrient dense food by Pattie Weller, C.C.N

Picture by:  http://www.worldcommunitycookbook.org/season/guide/photos/peppers.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Digestive Health, Nutrition Tips, Prevention information, vitamins | 3 Comments »