Vitamin C is one of the best known and most coveted vitamins in the world. So much so that many people take supplements every day or foods enriched with it to double the benefits, but be very careful with this. Vitamin C does not accumulate in the body, nor the more we take, the better, but it has severe contraindications due to excess.
When we talk about vitamin C we always think of the orange or the tangerine, but really kiwi is one of the fruits that has the highest percentage of vitamin C. Throughout this text we are going to discover what other foods are rich in this essential nutrient.
Vitamin C is essential
It is a vitamin that serves us for a multitude of important functions that our body performs at every moment such as the regeneration and repair of tissues, forming the proteins that the skin, tendons, ligaments and blood vessels produce , heal wounds, heal wounds, protects against the loss of natural vision due to age, it reduces the risk of diseases, protects the heart, keeps the eggs, teeth and cartilage healthy and strong, acts as an antioxidant and prevents degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, prevents us from arteriosclerosis and the cell mutation that leads to cancer.
As we can see, it is an essential nutrient, and above all it is something that our body does not synthesize, so we need to ingest it daily. This is where the problems come, as it is not good to exceed the maximum amount or create a deficit.
For adults an amount of 65 mg to 90 mg daily has been established , and excess, above 2,000 mg daily can cause diarrhea (even acute), nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, colic and heartburn, insomnia, headaches, etc.
A vitamin C deficiency (severely) causes scurvy, which is a serious disorder that causes bleeding, anemia, and bleeding gums. Although, as a general rule, this level is not reached, but a “normal” vitamin C deficiency can cause weakness, fatigue, irritability, indefinite pain, joint inflation, inflamed enzymes, etc.
Main foods rich in vitamin C
We have believed that oranges are the food that has the most vitamin C all our lives, and it is not true. They are very healthy, of course, and we recommend them in juices and whole, but there are other foods with greater richness of this nutrient and we are going to get to know them.
Hot pepper and sweet pepper
A confrontation where the hot pepper wins by a landslide, since the hot green pepper and the red chili 225 mg give us 120 mg compared to the sweet red pepper that is 152 mg.
Therefore, if we like spicy and exotic food, we are well nourished with vitamin C, but be very careful, since they tend to be foods that cause health problems in the long run. This is why it is advisable to create healthy lifestyle habits with a very varied diet.
Aromatic herbs
We refer to parsley that can be used at almost any time, basil, thyme and chives. These aromatic herbs provide vitamin C and almost as much as oranges.
For its part, parsley gives us up to 190 mg per 100 grams of weight, obviously nobody takes that amount of parsley, but if we add a little several times a day, we will have a decent amount of vitamin C in the body, along with the rest. of food that we eat throughout the day.
Chives have 60 mg per 100 grams of product and basil has 61.2 mg of vitamin C per 100 grams of product and thyme has 45 mg. So parsley wins by a landslide.
Black currant
Is there a more exquisite red fruit than this? No, it does not exist and it is that you can make almost everything with black currants, from eating them whole, making jam, mashing them and creating a topping for desserts, making ice cream with currants, adding them to a yogurt with other varieties of fruits, sauce of currants for some types of meat and fish, etc.
Well, this exotic and delicious fruit provides us with almost 160 mg of vitamin C for every 100 grams of product, so with a tablespoon or two of its jam we are already well of this vitamin for a day.
Strawberry, kiwi, melon and papaya
There are 4 fruits that are easily found in greengrocers and in the greengrocer section of supermarkets, but there is also another fruit that is more exotic called guava. These 5 contain an interesting amount of vitamin C for every 100 grams of product.
The melon provides 67 mg, the strawberries 60 mg, the kiwi 59 mg, the papaya 64 mg and the jewel in the crown is the guava that provides us with 273 mg of vitamin C for every 100 grams of this exotic fruit. So, if we want to increase the intake of this nutrient, it is time to look for guavas.
Orange and lemon
They are the most common flavors in sodas, slushies, ice cream and the like, but when it comes to eating the fruit, the orange wins for obvious reasons. Regarding nutritional values, both are very necessary and when it comes to the amount of vitamin C they contain, the lemon slightly wins compared to the orange.
100 grams of orange provide us with 50 mg of vitamin C , while the lemon has 53 mg of vitamin C for every 100 grams of this fruit, or 200 ml of natural fruit juice.
Green leafy vegetables
We have broccoli, Brussels sprouts, flat green beans, kale, and watercress. The range is large and we have a choice, although in general green leafy vegetables are very nutritious and an excellent option to consume daily, so our body will always be well nourished.
Cabbages provide us with 110 mg of vitamin C for every 100 grams of product, broccoli a bit of the same, however, kale only provides us with 62 mg of vitamin C for every 100 grams of product. Finally, watercress provides 60 mg for every 100 grams of products and beans 107 mg.
