Vitamin C seems to be the one vitamin that everyone knows about, and it’s a widely-held belief that consuming vitamin C during flu lessens the duration of the disease, and can prevent the development of scurvy. The ascorbic acid that vitamin C provides helps to boost your immune system’s functionality, helping to fight the wellness-draining effects of colds and flu, but is there more to this vital vitamin than just stopping the sniffles?
In fact, vitamin C has several important functions to improve your wellbeing. One way it works is by helping to protect your cells and keep them healthy. Vitamin C is also necessary in maintaining your healthy connective tissue, which is important in giving support and structure for other tissues and organs. However, vitamin C’s functions aren’t only preventative, but the vitamin also has healing properties, especially in the case of throat infection and in healing wounds.
So that’s vitamin C but where can you find it? You may think that you need to load up on oranges and orange juice, but vitamin C is found naturally in a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Good sources include red and green peppers, strawberries, blackcurrants, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and potatoes, but you can also take your vitamin C in supplement form if need be.
The downside of vitamin C is that it dissolves in water, which means that if you spend the day scoffing down strawberries and gobbling green peppers, your body won’t be able to store any extra vitamin C that it doesn’t use that day. Therefore, if you’re an adult, it is recommended that you consume 40mg of vitamin C every day and up to 60mg on days when you have the flu. The best sources of this are citrus fruits.
However, overloading on vitamin C has further side effects than just a waste of oranges and supplements. If it is taken in large amounts, as defined as over 1000mg per day, vitamin C can cause you to experience such symptoms as stomach pain, diarrhoea and flatulence. The good news, on the other hand, is that these symptoms should disappear once you stop taking vitamin C supplements, or lay off the broccoli for a bit. Taking 1000mg or less a day of vitamin C supplements is unlikely to cause any harm.
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