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[Personaltrainer]

Benefits of Vitamin C

Many benefits of vitamin C have been identified since the
consumption of citrus fruit was first recognised as the
immediately effective cure and preventative for the scurvy which
so dreadfully afflicted the long distance sailors of a few
centuries ago.

Numerous studies have recognised the vitamin as a possible
protector against coronary heart disease, stroke,
atherosclerosis, hypertension and cancer, to name but a few, and
it is possible that all of these effects stem ultimately from
vitamin C's acknowledged role as a powerful anti-oxidant, active
in preventing the free radical damage which is a known cause of
premature ageing and many chronic degenerative diseases.

So the absence of acute deficiency diseases such as scurvy in
modern affluent societies should not be taken as implying that
the typical Western diet contains an adequate intake of vitamin
C for optimum long-term health.

The United States Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for
vitamin C is 90 mg per day for a healthy, non-smoking man and 75
mg for a woman. But these suggested requirements are increased
to 125mg and 110 mg respectively in the case of smokers, a tacit
acknowledgement of the increased requirement for this vitamin
which increased toxic stress places on the body. But these RDAs
nevertheless appear to be set at a level sufficient only to
avoid outright deficiency disease.

To be sure of obtaining all the optimum benefits of vitamin C,
the authoritative Linus Pauling Institute has recommended a
daily minimum intake of at least 400 mg. This amount has been
shown to achieve saturation levels of the vitamin within the
body's tissues in healthy young adults who are non-smokers. To
get this in perspective, even the consumption of the recommended
five daily servings of fruits and vegetables may provide just
200 mg of vitamin C, whilst even commercial multi-vitamin
supplements typically provide only around 60 mg.

But the real story's actually even worse than this, not only
because all too few people actually manage to consume the
recommended quantities of fruit and vegetables, but because the
nutritional quality of those that we do consume is poor, and
getting worse.

Nor does the problem lie just in the soil. The modern Western
diet's preference for highly refined grains, and the treatment
of fruits and vegetables with preservatives, dyes, pesticides
and even radiation is a proven disaster for vitamin and mineral
retention, as well as a significant toxic assault on the body.

Indeed, the problem for us in the twenty-first century is that
our environment seems as though it might have been expressly
designed for ill-health. Daily we're exposed to a kind of toxic
soup of pollutants such as industrial emissions, car exhausts,
pesticides, herbicides, dyes and all kinds of everyday household
chemicals. But as the liver works ever harder in an increasingly
desperate struggle to detoxify the body, an unwelcome side
effect is that it produces enormous quantities of the free
radicals which are amongst the chief contributors to premature
ageing and degenerative disease.

In these adverse circumstances it can only make sense to ensure
that the body is as lavishly provided as possible with the top
quality anti-oxidants of which vitamin C is certainly one of the
most important.

Fortunately, high dosages of vitamin C are readily available as
supplements and fortunately, too, it seems that the manufactured
kind of l-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is chemically identical to
that obtained naturally. This is not in any way to deny the
importance of healthy eating, or to suggest that it doesn't make
sense to try and eat the recommended five daily servings of
fruit and vegetables, because these contain a myriad of trace
nutrients which operate synergistically within the body, and
which all need to be present for optimum health.

It does suggest, however, that to rely on diet alone, however
apparently healthy, may well be to risk missing out on the vital
anti-oxidant properties of vitamin C which may in time be
reflected in chronic, degenerative, if not acute, disease. It
should be noted as well, that as a water-soluble compound, any
excess vitamin C is harmlessly excreted by the body. So with all
the health benefits of vitamin C at stake, it surely makes sense
to err on the side of taking in too much rather than too little.