Vitamin C

Vitamins

The vitamin the body does not store: what is not used during the day leaves in the urine.

Fragile to heat and to cooking water. It also multiplies the absorption of plant iron eaten at the same meal by three or four.

Effects and benefits

We are among the few mammals unable to make it. It builds the collagen that holds skin, gums and blood vessels together, supports defenses, reduces tiredness and helps absorb iron from plants.

An ancient mutation broke, in our primate ancestors, the gene for the enzyme that makes it; guinea pigs and fruit bats share this handicap. Without intake, collagen falls apart: that is scurvy, which killed more sailors than battles. In 1747, James Lind showed, in one of the first controlled trials in history, that two oranges and a lemon a day made it recede.

It contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of blood vessels, bones, cartilage, gums, skin and teeth, to the normal function of the immune system, to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, to the protection of cells from oxidative stress, and that it increases iron absorption (Regulation 432/2012).

By sex and age: EFSA sets the reference intake at 110 mg a day for a man and 95 for a woman, 105 during pregnancy and 155 during breastfeeding (EFSA, 2013). Tobacco uses it up: smokers need 35 mg more a day (Institute of Medicine, 2000).

Sources: Lind, 1753 · EU Regulation 432/2012 · EFSA, 2013 · Institute of Medicine, 2000

Vitamin C

Effects and benefits

Where to find it (44)

Also, in smaller amounts (35)