Vitamin C what can I say? Those little vitamin supplements that our mums got us to take as kids were delicious. But that is not all...
A number of recent studies have shown that increasing the levels of vitamin C may help with beating cancer, this has stemmed from people eating diets high in fruit and vegetables having a lower incidence of cancer. From my research there have not been any well controlled peer reviewed accounts of this yet. There are however a lot of holistic centres that do stand-by IV infusions of Vitamin C in the prevention and treatment of cancer. While we wait for more news in this space. What do we actually know about Vitamin C?
- Also know as ascorbic acid and is a water soluble nutrient.
- Is a powerful antioxidant, and numerous studies are underway to prove that it can protect against free radicals in the body. Free radicals in simple terms are molecules that can cause damage to our cells, caused by stress, sleep deprivation, chemicals in our environment and poor diet. Antioxidants can react with these free molecules to stop these free radicals from damaging our cells. If you are planning on losing weight taking vitamin C could help with managing the toxins released from your fat cells.
-These free radicals can cause premature aging, therefor eating foods high in vitamin C may be able to slow the aging process or fight the external forces that may be speeding it up.
-A 2016 study found that consuming 1000mg (quite a lot larger than the lower RDI limit, but a standard supplement daily dose) of Vitamin C per day could help reduce the amount of PCBs (polychlorinated byphenyl) found in your body, PCBs are persistent environmental pollutants which were prevalent in the 1970s but have since been banned. However these are still found in our environment and in our bodies and are obtained from our environment. This study shows that Vitamin C could help reduce this toxic load.
