Vitamin C foods

Let's see what Dr. Linus Pauling had to say

Here is a list of the best vitamin C foods:

Many different foods contain vitamin C. This article will highlight some of the better sources.

Orange
Grapefruit
Guava
Kiwifruit
Mango
Papaya
Raspberry
Strawberry

"...the lack of this molecule (vitamin C) in humans has contributed to more deaths, sickness, and just plain misery than any other single factor in man's long history".

The late biochemist Irwin Stone

Tomatoes
Broccoli
Bell peppers
Leafy green veggies

Benefits of Vitamin C:

It keeps your immune system healthy.

This certainly sounds like a bit of a broad benefit, and it is. When we say keeps your immune system healthy, this ranges from preventing illnesses and diseases, to binding cells together.

Vitamin C is well known for its antioxidant powers. It fights off damaging cells in our immune systems and defends against tissue damage in the cardiovascular system. For a full review of antioxidant facts, click here.

Another important benefit is the role it plays in collagen formation.

Collagen is a protein that connects and supports other bodily tissues.

Because of this strong connection of collagen formation and vitamin C, your bones will benefit from vitamin C and vitamin C foods. It also helps keep your skin and teeth healthy, and can help with the healing of wounds.

Vitamin C has other biochemical functions as well.

Dr. Linus Pauling

Most animals produce vitamin C by themselves.

Humans are one of the few animals that don't produce vitamin C. We must get it entirely from our diet. This is why vitamin C foods and supplements are so important.

Dr. Linus Pauling has stated that this is one of the great misfortunes of human evolution.

Linus Pauling and vitamin C go hand and hand.

He has won multiple Nobel Prizes and is one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. He was the world's primary vitamin C enthusiast.

One of the benefits of eating vitamin C foods and supplementing vitamin C that Dr. Pauling was a big advocate about was the role it played in creating collagen.

How much should you take?

According to Dr. Pauling, you should be getting the amount of vitamin C that animals produce themselves.

That's about 10 to 12 grams per day.

Dr. Pauling himself had increased his dosage to 18 grams per day.

A great quote regarding a vitamin C dosage is from the Nobel Prize winner for his discovery of vitamin C, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi:

"The medical profession itself took a very narrow and very wrong view. Lack of ascorbic acid caused scurvy, so if there was no scurvy there was no lack of ascorbic acid. Nothing could be clearer than this. The only trouble was that scurvy is not a first symptom of a lack but a final collapse, a premortal syndrome and there is a very wide gap between scurvy and full health. "

So, you should probably be getting more vitamin C than your are currently consuming.

There are no toxicity concerns with taking too much vitamin C.

And one of the most efficient ways to get quality vitamin C into your body is through supplementation. You can be sure Linus Pauling wasn't eating baskets of oranges to get his 18 grams per day :)

Vitamin C foods are good sources of vitamin C, but health supplements can really pack the dosages you need for optimal levels of health.

Health supplements are another good source of vitamin C.

Taking a quality supplement will ensure you get enough vitamin C for optimal levels of health.

These days it's difficult to make sure you eat enough of these vitamin C foods. I'm not saying supplements can replace your diet entirely. You should always make eating healthy, and especially foods with vitamin C an important priority.

But for many people there are reasons why it can be hard to get your daily dose of vitamin C and other important nutrients. It's called life.... meetings, running late, busy work shifts. When was the last time you had 5 servings of fruits and veggies on a consistent basis? And if you do get your 5 servings per day, read this vitamins in food article.

This is where supplements come in. They make it convenient to get proper dosages of important nutrients. They fill the wholes in your diet.

Click here for more information on getting important vitamins into your diet.