Vitamin C -- The Most Famous of Vitamins! By David Leonhardt We call Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, "the most famous of vitamins" because it really is
best known. It is first one schoolchildren learn. It is most cited cure for common cold. Most people can rhyme off at least a few foods that contain vitamin C. And vitamin C is single most searched nutrient on Internet.
HISTORY: Nobel Prize winning biochemist Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi first isolated vitamin C in 1928. (As someone of Hungarian descent, I find this a touch exciting.)
Vitamin C first got its reputation for beating common cold in 1970, when fellow Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling published his bestselling book "Vitamin C and Common Cold". In it, he suggested that taking vitamin C at levels well above USA RDA (now 60 milligrams per day) could strengthen immune system and help ward off common cold.
BENEFITS: Vitamin C helps form collagen, a glue-like fibrous protein in bone, cartilage, tendons and other connective tissue. Vitamin C helps give structure and maintain such body parts as bones, cartilage, muscle, veins, capillaries and teeth.
But recent studies have also linked "adequate dosages" of vitamin C to preventing a number of common cancers, of helping boost nervous system, of prolonging life, of reducing risk of heart disease, of softening symptoms of respiratory diseases such as asthma and cystic fibrosis, and of keeping skin and glands healthy.
SOURCES: Most animals manufacture their own vitamin C. Primates, such as humans, gorillas, and monkeys, have somehow lost this ability.
Which is why we need to get our vitamin C from our diets.
It is well known that citrus fruits, such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, tangerines, limes, mandarins and others contain vitamin C.
In fact, vitamin C comes almost exclusively from fruits and vegetables. Other good sources are tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, broccoli, asparagus, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, peas, rutabagas, cantaloupe, kiwi, papayas, potatoes and watermelon.
