What’s The Real Deal with Vitamin C?

Ah yes, Vitamin C.

The first two things I think of when I think of Vitamin C are oranges and drinking/eating it in copious amount when I’m sick.

In Athens, fresh squeezed orange juice was allllll over. And in every single place, from coffee shop to street-side restaurant, it was amazing.

But it got me thinking: what really is Vitamin C, how does it work, and does it even really work?

I needed answers. So I did a bit of research for you all.

Vitamin C is also known as L-asorbic acid (kinda gross sounding right?). It’s found most commonly in citrus fruits and it’s pretty uncommon to be low in vitamin C (unless your diet is very unvaried).

THE WHAT

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that the human body doesn’t naturally produce or store.

You need it for a bunch of things; ranging from small and obscure to pretty important:

+ collagen production
+ some neurotransmitter function (brain stuff)
+ metabolising proteins
+ being an antioxidant
+ boosting immune function
+ growth and repair of muscles

As for if loading up on vitamin C really can cure your cold, I’m sorry to report that studies show this is a myth. The vitamin doesn’t help prevent against colds or cure them once they’ve started.

However, people who regularly have vitamin C do generally have shorter colds. It’s still up in the air if large doses can really shorten a cold too.

THE HOW

While there is only a certain amount of vitamin C your body can absorb daily, there’s no harm in ingesting as much as you want (within reason). Because your body doesn’t store the vitamin, it will just pee out the rest.

Obviously, oranges and other citrus fruits contain a lot of vitamin C but surprisingly so do potatoes! You can even take buffered vitamin c supplements which help with things like tissue growth and repair.

Other vegetables that generally have the vitamin (when consumed raw) are:

+ green peppers
+ kiwis
+ brocoli
+ strawberries
+cantaloup

In all, while vitamin C does a lot of great things, it’s not generally something you’ll have to worry about. Most people get plenty without ever having to think about it.

Do you believe in the cold-healing power of vitamin C?