OK, next up, how much Vitamin C do I need? We all know it’s an anti-oxidant and helps synthesize collagen.
Turns out, not that much. You only need about 75 mg a day. If you smoke you need more like 95mg/day. Keep it in mind. The good news is that you can easily achieve this quota in the summer with:
Just one of these baskets of strawberries provides about 100 mg of Vitamin C so you’re good.
Or this:
Each of these grapefruits contain about 80 mg of Vitamin C so help a sister out and pass one on!
There’s also a sweet potato (100 mg) and half a cup of broccoli (60 mg) but those are vegetables, not as fun…if we take closer look at King G, however, he is “keeping watch” on some tomato plants which will eventually provide great sources of Vitamin C.
But you can also neutralize the benefits of Vitamin C, which include iron absorption, by ingesting it along with something with strong tannins like coffee or tea. (About 1 in 10 pre-menopausal women already have iron deficiencies) So that means if you are super proud of the iron you are getting from the eggs you eat in the morning, if you are drinking OJ or eating a grapefruit while also drinking coffee, you may be cutting down your iron absorption by as much as 40 percent! Life is hard enough, don’t work against yourself this way…space out the coffee for another time besides the meal itself…
Some other thoughts about Vitamin C. The National Institute of Health warns of an Upper Limit for Vitamin C at 2000 mg. Some people report diarrhea or nausea if they take too much Vitamin C. There are a lot of people out there taking extra Vitamin C as part of an anti-wrinkle campaign but make sure that you aren’t exceeding this limit to keep your digestion in tact and not invite kidney stones. Most doctors says supplementation isn’t necessary if you just enjoy some of these fruits everyday which doesn’t seem like much of a chore. The strawberries in this post come from #terrafirmafarms in Winters and the tomato plants come from #loveapplefarms in Ben Lomond. Check them out.