Should you take a Vitamin C Supplement?
If you eat a balanced diet, you probably won’t need a vitamin C supplement. Although vitamin C is crucial to our healthy development, we can easily consume the recommended daily allowance (RDA) without resorting to taking a vitamin C supplement.
Also called ascorbic acid, vitamin C is one of the water soluble vitamins. This means that if you take in more than you need, it won’t be stored in your body, but instead the body will excrete it during urination. The RDA of vitamin C is 60-90 mg per day and it is easily found in many foods. Citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons and limes are rich in vitamin C. Vitamin C can also be found in greens like broccoli, turnip greens, green peppers, Brussels sprout, and leafy greens. It shouldn't be hard to eat fruits such as strawberries, watermelon, raspberries and blueberries.
Vitamin C can be found in so many of the things we enjoy eating that it’s really not hard to get enough so that generally speaking, a vitamin C supplement wouldn’t be necessary. Women who are pregnant or nursing may have a need for more than the usual RDA. Check with your doctor to see if you may need a vitamin C supplement. Vitamin C is sometimes used as an inexpensive preservative and some foods like juices and cereals are fortified with vitamin C.
Vitamin C is essential to our bodies in the production of collagen, which literally helps hold us together. We need it to help form scar tissue and to help our wounds heal. We need vitamin C for strong bones. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant that helps rid our body of toxins. It’s crucial to our overall health.
As easy as it is to get enough vitamin C in our diets, it can be dangerous if we don’t. A lack of vitamin C can cause scurvy, which is characterized by loose teeth, bleeding gums, decreased ability to fight infection and swollen and painful joints.
It would be better to take a vitamin C supplement than to develop a vitamin C deficiency. Since our bodies neither produce nor store vitamin C, it has to come from somewhere. Excess doses of vitamin C can cause stomach upset and diarrhea though. Remember, our bodies get rid of the vitamin C we don’t use everyday so this is an ongoing need. The most important thing we can do to fulfill the body’s need for vitamin C is to eat a balanced diet. If you’re unable to do so, you may need to consider a vitamin C supplement.
