The human body doesn’t produce vitamin C. It also doesn’t store large amounts of it. And since vitamin C dissolves in water, whatever your body doesn’t absorb at the time exits your body when you visit the ladies’ room. That’s why you need to intake this vitamin daily for healthy growth and development.
Vitamin C plays a crucial role in human health. Some of this potent antioxidant’s functions and benefits include:
- Supporting your immune system. While vitamin C hasn’t proven to prevent people from getting sick, it can help shorten the duration of a cold or flu or lessen their symptoms if you’re regularly getting the needed amount or more of this vitamin.
- Protecting your cells from the damaging effects of free radicals. Blame these guys for their role in developing cardiovascular disease, eye diseases, chronic diseases, certain cancers, aging, and more.
- Helping produce collagen. This protein is found throughout your body—in your bones, muscles, tendons, and skin. Collagen helps with wound healing and keeping your skin firm and healthy.
- Regenerating other antioxidants. Vitamin C has been shown to help reinvigorate antioxidants in your body, like vitamin E, a nutrient that supports cell function and immune and skin health.
Here are three of the best ways to get vitamin C naturally:
1. Eat fresh, raw foods high in vitamin C.
When you think of the best source of vitamin C, do oranges come to mind? Your parents didn’t lie to you. Oranges and orange juice are a good way to get vitamin C. But did you know there are foods with even more vitamin C than oranges? Raw guava, sweet red peppers, sweet green peppers, hot green chili peppers, and tomato juice are some of the best sources of vitamin C. Some other foods high in vitamin C that you probably don’t associate with this vitamin include broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, and brussels sprouts.
To get the most vitamin C from these fruits and vegetables, eat them raw. Vitamin C is a water-soluble nutrient, and cooking it strips the fruit or vegetable of some of its nutrients. If you cook it, steam, stir-fry, grill, microwave it or boil vegetables, you will decrease the amount of vitamin C you actually intake. The longer vegetables sit in water and the higher the temperature used to cook them, the more nutrients seep out.
2. Add more fermented foods to your diet.
Fermented foods are known for their beneficial probiotics. But some fermented foods are also high in vitamin C. This is especially true with those made of cabbage, such as kimchi and sauerkraut, whose vitamin C and antioxidant levels rise when fermented. Fermentation is a natural process that can make foods more nutritious and give them a distinct flavor. Who doesn’t want to eat foods like that?
3. Use a vitamin C serum made with natural ingredients.
There are so many skin benefits of vitamin C—all of which you want, whether you’re in your 20s or 60s. Did you wake up with puffy eyes and dry skin? Are you tired of looking in the mirror and seeing dark under-eye circles and dark spots on your skin? A natural vitamin C serum can help fix all those problems. Seriously, ladies. Incorporating a vitamin C serum into your daily skin care routine is like receiving a natural, age-defying facelift in a bottle (which we’ll take over a genie in a bottle any day).
We know face serum shopping can be hard, but it shouldn’t be. Let us help! We put together an easy-to-read guide so you know the formula and ingredients to look for, like vitamin C, to make face serum shopping simple.