Vitamin C

Vitamin C is often associated with preventing colds, leading many to increase their intake when feeling under the weather. However, its importance extends beyond boosting the immune system. Vitamin C plays several vital roles in the body, including:

• Maintaining the integrity of cells.
• Facilitating the healing of wounds and bruises.
• Promoting healthy gums and teeth.
• Enhancing the body's resistance to disease.
• Aiding in the absorption of iron and calcium from foods.

As a water-soluble vitamin, the body cannot store vitamin C, meaning any excess is excreted in urine.

How Much Do I Need?

Sources of Vitamin C

Everyone should have at least one high source of vitamin C every day, or two good sources. But if you smoke, make sure you have more!

It is best to get your vitamin C from foods. The amount of vitamin C you get from foods depends on how they are prepared, cooked, and stored.

• Preparation: Fruits and vegetables that are peeled or cut into small pieces will lose vitamin C quickly. When possible, serve whole or large pieces. Another option is to add citrus juice to cover small pieces of cut fruit. This keeps them from turning brown and adds vitamin C.
• Cooking: Vitamin C is destroyed by heat and lost in cooking water, so steam or cook for a short time.
• Storage: The longer a food is stored, the more vitamin C lost.  Peeled or cut foods should be stored in airtight containers. Refrigerate juices in an airtight plastic or glass container.

When choosing fresh fruits and vegetables, pick ones that look fresh and are not wilted.  Buy ones that are in season.

Vitamin C Foods:

• High sources: cantaloupe, grapefruit/grapefruit juice, kiwi, orange/orange juice, strawberries, green pepper, V-8 juice
• Good Sources: Baked potato with skin, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, honeydew melon, mandarin orange, pineapple/pineapple juice, tangerine, tomato/tomato juice

Try these sources and serving sizes to get your daily dose:

• Red pepper, sweet, raw, ½ cup: 95mg
• Orange juice, ¾ cup: 93mg
• Orange, 1 medium: 70mg
• Kiwi, 1 medium: 64mg
• Green pepper, sweet, raw, ½ cup: 60mg
• Broccoli, cooked, ½ cup: 51mg
• Strawberries, fresh, sliced, ½ cu: 49mg

Canned or packaged fruit drinks or punches such as Kool-Aid®, Hi-C®, Sunny Delight®, Tang®, Hawaiian Punch® and lemonade are not considered part of the vitamin C food group because they are high in sugar and low in other nutrients.  They contain little or no fruit.

Sources: USDA Infant Feeding & Nutrition – A Guide for Use in WIC, National Institutes of Health, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine