Natural vitamin C

Vitamin C is essential for body function. You only have to see the effect of a lack of it to be convinced of this! People suffering from vitamin C deficiency, such as sailors who spend months at sea, end up with scurvy. The major symptoms of scurvy are feeling very weak coupled with oedemas and haemorrhaging that can lead to death. To go back to the sailors, they stopped developing scurvy as soon as someone had the idea of adding lemon juice to their daily diet because lemon is a fruit that preserves this precious vitamin well and for a long time under its thick skin!

Vitamin C is of course normally found in fruit and vegetables in varying quantities, but the ultimate content of this very delicate vitamin is not guaranteed. Vitamin C is the most delicate of vitamins; it is sensitive to heat, oxygen in the air and light and should be stored in a dry place. Thus at 20°C, food loses up to 50% of its vitamin C content in one day. Sometimes much more depending on how it is prepared and cooked.  

Moreover, the body does not store vitamin C, but eliminates it after several hours. 

Stress, smoking, pollution by heavy metals, toxic products and also some pharmaceutical products (pills, aspirins, antibiotics, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, vaccinations) also considerably increase vitamin C requirements. So, in the case of smoking, according to some studies, each cigarette smoked could lead to the immediate consumption of 18mg of vitamin C! AFFSA therefore recommends a supplement of 20% of vitamin C for smokers who smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day.

In addition to its anti-scurvy effect, vitamin C is an anti-oxidant that captures free radicals, heavy metals and toxic substances in our cells. Vitamin C oxidises (loses its electrons) on contact with these and detoxifies the cells before being expelled by the kidneys into the urine. Thus it combats cellular ageing, due mostly to the accumulation of poisons and is involved in the regeneration of all the body’s organs. 

 
Many doctors have recommended the daily intake of higher doses of vitamin C for preventing attacks on the immune system, supporting anti-cancer treatments and, of course, for protection against ageing for many years.