Health and Fitness

The c vitamin has got to be the most widely known vitamin these days.
It is not surprising because the body needs c vitamin for over 300 functions.
In fact, the c vitamin has been proved to help protect against heart disease, cancer and other serious illnesses.
Without the c vitamin the body would not be able to heal itself either.
This is because the c vitamin is vital for the formation of collagen.
Whenever a person has a cut or an injury it is the collagen that helps repair the damage and without sufficient c vitamin this would be almost impossible.
Collagen has a multitude of functions in the body, including keeping the organs in place, and it would not be able to do this without sufficient c vitamin.
The c vitamin is also an antioxidant for the body and helps other vitamins and minerals to be absorbed better.
Folic acid and iron, for example, need the c vitamin to maximise their usefulness.
The more c vitamin that the body has, the better its defence against colds and other common ailments and the c vitamin may not prevent a person catching a virus but it does help speed up the recovery process.
There is c vitamin in almost every fruit and vegetable but some have far higher c vitamin content than others.
Cranberries and melons have high c vitamin content.
In fact, tropical fruits have the highest c vitamin amounts of all fruit.
Hot peppers are amongst the richest sources of the c vitamin when it comes to vegetables.
The hotter the pepper, the higher its c vitamin content is.
Unfortunately, the c vitamin is water soluble so many vegetables lose their effectiveness as a c vitamin provider if they are boiled for a long time.
Steaming or quick stir frying vegetables ensures that more of their c vitamin content is retained.
The recommended daily amount of the c vitamin is easily obtained from eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day if they are consumed raw or cooked quickly.
C vitamin supplements are extremely useful to ensure that people obtain sufficient c vitamin.
However, with a balanced diet the amount of c vitamin the body receives is likely to be sufficient.
However, if a person begins feeling tired or lethargic then a c vitamin supplement will help overcome this.
There is no danger of having too much c vitamin as the body simply excretes the excess.