Your health depends on it!
By Veronika Powell MSc, Viva!Health www.vivahealth.org.uk
Vitamin C is so familiar we don’t pay much attention to it and yet… it’s easy to not get enough in your diet, particularly if you rely on processed and convenience foods. Almost anything with vitamin C in it (also known as ascorbic acid) is hailed as a healthy food but is that simply a marketing trick? Let’s find out…
WHY DO WE NEED IT?
Vitamin C is essential for the growth and repair of all the tissues in the human body. It helps make collagen, an important protein which is one of the basic components in the skin, cartilage, tendons, ligaments and blood vessels. It follows that vitamin C is also necessary for wound healing and for healthy bones and teeth.
Extreme cases of vitamin C deficiency can lead to scurvy – a potentially fatal disease that used to be common amongst sailors. Its symptoms include gum bleeding and swelling, purple and bleeding skin, muscle and joint pain and tiredness – simply because the body cannot make collagen and maintain all its tissues. Scurvy was eradicated with the introduction of lemons, oranges and lemon juice in the naval diet but it still sometimes occurs in people with very poor or limited diets.
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October-17
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