What’s vitamin C?
Vitamin C, also referred to as ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin and in consequence not saved by the physique. This implies we have to guarantee we get satisfactory quantities from the meals in our diets, every day.
Vitamin C has a number of vital features together with:
How a lot vitamin C ought to we eat?
UK pointers recommend adults aged 19 and over want 40mg per day, which it is best to have the ability to get out of your weight loss plan.
Being water-soluble and delicate to excessive warmth, some vitamin C is misplaced throughout cooking. Uncooked fruit and greens will include essentially the most vitamin C but when you must cook dinner them in any respect then steaming seems to be one of the best technique for retaining dietary worth.
Uncover our full vary of well being profit guides. Plus, uncover the prime 20 healthiest fruits and prime 20 healthiest greens.
High 10 healthiest sources of vitamin C
1. Blackcurrants
160mg per 80g serving (cupped handful) or 200mg per 100g
Blackcurrants are small, spherical, purple-black berries which are tart to the style. Only one 80g serving gives 200% of your day by day vitamin C wants and surprisingly thirty occasions extra vitamin C than blueberries.
Blackcurrants might be simply used to make jam or sorbet.
Uncover our prime 10 methods to cook dinner with blackcurrants.
2. Broccoli (uncooked)
63mg per 80g serving (cupped handful) or 79mg per 100g
Whether or not eaten uncooked or cooked, broccoli is a helpful supply of vitamin C. It may be eaten as crudités or added to a juice or smoothie. Chances are you’ll desire to flippantly steam it as an accompaniment to your principal meal, or add to numerous recipes, together with soups, stir-fries or salads.
A cupped handful of uncooked broccoli gives about 60mg of vitamin C which is in extra of your day by day wants. If cooked, ranges of vitamin C drop to about 48mg per 80g serving, it’s because vitamin C is delicate to warmth and is water-soluble.
Uncover the well being advantages for broccoli.
3. Inexperienced pepper
96mg per 80g serving (½ massive pepper) or 120mg per 100g
Like its crimson counterpart, inexperienced peppers are very versatile, much less candy to the style they make helpful additions to stir fries, Turkish eggs and when added to a zesty salsa.
Half a big inexperienced pepper will present round twice your day by day vitamin C wants together with nutritional vitamins B6, folate and fibre.
4. Guava
126mg per 55g serving (1 fruit) or 230mg per 100g serving
Guavas are a tropical fruit that may be eaten by scooping out the within or consuming it complete with out the pores and skin. You will have to take away the seeds in bigger fruit. They are often juiced, added to fruit salads or made right into a jam.
One guava fruit comprises 3 times your day by day vitamin C wants, they’re additionally supply of fibre, folate and potassium.
5. Kale (cooked)
57mg per 80g serving (one handful) or 71mg per 100g
A well-liked ‘tremendous meals’, kale comprises 4 occasions the vitamin C and twice the vitamin E as spinach, and contributes plant compounds, like beta-carotene. These vitamins are vital for supporting a wholesome immune system.
Add this leafy inexperienced raw to smoothies and salads, or add cooked to pasta, curries or steamed on the facet of your meal.
Get cooking with out nutritious kale recipes.
6. Kiwi fruit
47mg per 80g serving (1 medium kiwi fruit) or 59mg per 100g
This brilliant inexperienced, tropical fruit is usually eaten uncooked. Merely peel and chop or lower in half and scoop out the flesh with a teaspoon. It may be added to fruit salad, used to prime yogurt or in a smoothie.
A single kiwi comprises simply over your day by day vitamin C wants and so they’re supply of vitamin Okay and fibre.
7. Orange
62mg per 120g serving (1 small orange) or 52mg per 100g
Many people take pleasure in this brilliant, juicy fruit typically. Attempt including segments of orange to salads, fruit salads or used to prime breakfast bowls . Don’t neglect the peel although, making up 40-50% of the fruit, the peel is richer than the flesh in minerals like iron and copper.
A single orange comprises all of your day by day vitamin C wants in addition to mixture of nutritional vitamins and minerals together with folate, calcium and magnesium.
A well-liked breakfast juice do keep in mind that unsweetened fruit juice can solely rely as certainly one of your five-a-day, whatever the quantity you drink – pointers recommend consumption is proscribed to at least one 150ml glass per day. It’s because crushing fruit into juice releases the pure fruit sugar they include which might harm enamel.
Learn extra concerning the well being advantages of oranges.
8. Papaya
48mg per 80g serving (½ small papaya) or 60mg per 100g
Papaya is a tropical fruit with gentle, edible flesh. It may be added to salads, made right into a salsa, utilized in a smoothie or a dessert.
Half a small papaya will simply present your vitamin C wants, together with some vitamin A, folate and potassium.
9. Crimson pepper
100mg per 80g serving (½ massive pepper) or 126mg per 100g
Half a big crimson pepper comprises over twice your day by day vitamin C wants, in addition to cheap quantities of nutritional vitamins E and Okay in addition to folate and fibre. A flexible ingredient crimson peppers might be added to soups, stews and stir-fries in addition to eaten in salads.
Uncover extra recipes utilizing crimson peppers.
10. Strawberries
46mg per 80g serving (7 medium strawberries) or 57mg per 100g
Deliciously candy, low calorie and with simply seven berries making 1 of your 5 a day, strawberries are an amazing wholesome deal with.
An 80g serving gives all of your day by day vitamin C wants and is wealthy in polyphenols – together with strawberries in your weight loss plan might enhance digestion, mind operate and help coronary heart well being.
Uncover the well being advantages of strawberries.
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Nicola Shubrook is a certified nutritionist registered with the British Affiliation for Diet and Way of life Medication (BANT) and the Complementary & Pure Healthcare Council (CNHC). Discover out extra at urbanwellness.co.uk.
All well being content material on bbcgoodfood.com is offered for common info solely, and shouldn’t be handled as an alternative to the medical recommendation of your individual physician or every other healthcare skilled. When you’ve got any issues about your common well being, it is best to contact your native healthcare supplier. See our web site phrases and situations for extra info.
Diet knowledge from McCance and Widdowson’s Composition of Meals except in any other case acknowledged.
