About Your Vitamins 

A Guide to Vitamin C

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.

Multi Vitamin Supplements Get nature's wholesome goodness of whole food ingredients a combination of powerful nutrients, with Life Multi Complete - a multivitamin and mineral combination.

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Natural Whole Food Vitamins Whole Food Vitamins for your daily servings of vitamin, mineral and enzyme rich whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables

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Check Up: Vitamin C vs. cancer: 'Encouraging'

A small study focused on the big question of whether intravenous Vitamin C fights cancer has yielded "somewhat encouraging findings," some Thomas Jefferson University researchers conclude.

New standard for vitamin D testing to ensure accurate test results

( American Chemical Society ) At a time of increasing concern about low vitamin D levels in the world's population and increased use of blood tests for the vitamin, scientists are reporting development of a much-needed reference material to assure that measurements of vitamin D levels are accurate. The report appears in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry.

Vitamin C as cancer treatment aid reemerges in Jefferson University Hospital clinical trials

A team of researchers at Jefferson University Hospitals and National Institutes of Health has found that vitamin C in high doses shows encouraging signs as a treatment aid with chemotherapy for advanced pancreatic cancer and is seeking patients for a phase 2 trial. A small phase 1 clinical trial at Jefferson used high-dose, intravenous vitamin C [...]

Are European kids getting enough vitamin D? Winter weather reopens the debate

The cold snap has well and truly set in across much of Europe, and as temperatures fall, watching our health becomes increasingly more crucial. Keeping our vitamin D levels up during the winter months has long been lauded as an important part of this fight against unforgiving winter climes, particularly for vulnerable groups such as young children.