Is the orange really the greatest source of natural vitamin C?

Author: Ondra Marienka

17.05.2019

4 minuty čtení

Vitamin C is one of the essential vitamins. From an early age, we have heard from our mothers and grandmothers that we should eat enough fruit to avoid getting sick. Man cannot make this vitamin himself, so he must take it from food. Of course, nowadays it is more common to take the so-called "C" in small pills. However, today we are going to take a look at the vitamin C that is found in vegetables and fruit. Not everyone knows how much of this vitamin is contained in an orange or a lemon.

What do we need it for?

This vitamin has many uses and great benefits, each of us would come up with more and more benefits. We will, therefore, list just a few, from our point of view, the most interesting ones.

Vitamin C is a great antioxidant! That you've heard this term before, but you're not sure what it means? Read our article - Everything you need to know about antioxidants
Reduces the likelihood of heart and vascular disease.
Smokers beware! Smoke contains lead. By snorting it, it enters your body. The "C" has the ability to bind heavy metals like the aforementioned lead, making it easier to flush these substances out of your body!
By stimulating white blood cells, it helps with disease.
It makes sure that we make the best use of the iron we take in from our food.
Another plus is that it increases resistance to colds - with many illnesses arising from colds, this information can be very useful.

How much to accept?

There is also a lot of speculation about the daily dose of vitamin C and everyone will tell you something different... Therefore, the table below, which shows the daily intake of "C", should be considered as one of the possible options.

Age	Men	Women
up to 6 months	50 mg	50 mg
7 to 12 months	55 mg	55 mg
1 to 3 years	60 mg	60 mg
4 to 6 years	70 mg	70 mg
7 to 10 years	80 mg	80 mg
11 to 14 years	90 mg	100 mg
15 to 18 years	100 mg	90 mg
15 to 18 years with increased physical activity	130 mg	120 mg
pregnant	-	110 mg
breastfeeding	-	150 mg
19 to 34 years old (light workers)	100 mg	100 mg
19 to 34 years (moderate workers)	120 mg	110 mg
19 to 34 years (heavy workers)	130 mg	120 mg
35 to 62 years (light workers)	100 mg	95 mg
35 to 62 years (moderate workers)	110 mg	100 mg
35 to 62 years (heavy workers)	120 mg	110 mg
63 years and over (not working)	100 mg	100 mg

Smokers should increase their daily dose by at least 35mg, precisely because of the leaching of lead from the body! If we have increased physical or mental stress, are ill or have some wounds healing, our intake should also be increased!

The best sources

"Orange and lemon contain the most vitamin C." One of the common myths we may come across! These two citrus fruits contain around 50mg of vitamin C per 100g. But now take a look at the table below, which we've taken from theCzech Republic's food composition database.

Food	Vitamin C per 100g
Vegetable peppers, red	191.0 mg
Parsley, stems	178.5 mg
Blackcurrant	166 mg
Broccoli	121.0 mg
Horseradish	117.0 mg
Capsicum, green	104.1 mg
Brussels sprouts	95.2 mg
Cabbage lettuce	94.8 mg
Kiwi	92.7 mg
Sterilised peppers	81.2 mg
Cauliflower	76.8 mg
Spices, paprika, sweet, ground	71.1 mg
Dill	70.0 mg
Garden strawberries	66.6 mg
Spinach	60.0 mg
Tomato puree	54.4 mg
Cabbage, red	52 mg
Spices, marjoram, dried	51.4 mg

Wow. So about eighteen foods contain more "C's" than oranges and lemons... Things are not always as they say. Red peppers contain the most vitamin C, so from now on, red peppers should definitely not be missing from your diet!