Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, was first isolated and identified in 1928.
These days we can get it in pills, lozenges, powder, effervescent tablets,
syrups, injections, IV solutions. It’s added to drinks and even cosmetics like
anti-aging creams. It has long been added to food in the form of citric acid to
prevent spoilage – you see, some food additives are actually natural
substances.
Vitamin C is very sensitive to air, water, and temperature. Boiling and
steaming, as well as freezing and unthawing will result in a loss of about
one-fourth of total vitamin C levels. The longer food is cooked, the more
vitamin C is lost. The highest levels are found in fresh, raw vegetables and
fruits, especially broccoli, parsley, bell peppers, strawberries, oranges,
lemons, papaya, cauliflower, kale, mustard greens, brussel sprouts.
It has been postulated that human beings lost an enzyme that is involved in
the manufacture of vitamin C. Mammals who can generate their own stores do not
get scurvy, tuberculosis of the lung, or viral leukemia, to name a few
diseases. Although vitamin C was first identified as an anti-scorbutic agent,
we have come to think of it as a good treatment for colds and infections. But
as mentioned above, it has many lesser known but just as important effects and
functions:
Vitamin C is essential to the
manufacture and maintenance of collagen, the major protein of the
connective tissue that shapes our bodies and strengthens our skin and
blood vessels.
It may play a role in
preventing atherosclerosis and hypertension.
It is an antioxidant, so it helps
reduce the activity of free radicals, by-products of normal metabolism
which nonetheless can damage cells and set the stage for aging,
degeneration, and cancer. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that vitamin C
is being used as a cancer treatment, albeit in much larger doses,
sometimes administered intravenously.
It is involved in the
activity of many cells of the immune system, like white blood cells,
various proteins, and interferons.
It is involved in the process
of detoxification, which takes place in various tissues and organs, such
as the liver.
Taking vitamin C supplements
increases the absorption of iron from the gut, which may or may not be
desirable, depending on the person.
Linus Pauling, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry as well as the Nobel
Peace Prize a few decades ago, was for many years, the lightning rod in the
controversy surrounding vitamin C – namely, how much should we take? Scientists,
mostly a highly conformist and conventional bunch, are not known for their
generosity towards pioneers or theorists. For decades they laughed at Pauling
for recommending that we take large doses of vitamin C, far above the
recommended 60 mg a day. Pauling himself was known to take 18 grams, or 18,000
mg a day. He thought that humans should take at least as much as rabbits
manufacture for themselves – up to 15 or more grams daily.