Note: vitamin requirements for skin health are individual to each person. Always consult your health professional before embarking on a vitamin-building routine.
Think of vitamin C as a health booster, and your mind probably goes straight to oranges and lemons, and a cold or the flu! But vitamin C is a big player when it comes to skin health, too. Healthy skin contains high levels of vitamin C where its role is to assist cells to build collagen (a form of protein which provides the skin with its elasticity, and helps keep wrinkles at bay). The skin’s vitamin C concentration also helps protect it from sun damage, and aids in the healing of wounds. Although vitamin C is essential for good skin health, there is still relatively little known about the best way to deliver it to the body.
The topical application of vitamin C (applying it directly to the surface of the skin) is a challenge, and where it has been studied on humans, research suggests the most effective delivery comes via applications that also contain vitamin E, plus an ingredient that helps with the effectiveness of this delivery. However, there are other ways to help vitamin C reach the skin, and one is through healthy eating.
New Zealanders are recommended to have 45mg of vitamin C a day (although this varies according to individual needs which are often based on age, life style, and health issues). As we set out to obtain our ‘45 a day,’ let’s take a look at where it might come from:
Fruit is the obvious choice but while our much-favoured vitamin C source, the orange, delivers 53mg of vitamin C per 100 grams, guava and kiwifruit will give a significantly better return at 228gm and 93gm per 100gms of fruit, respectively. What’s more, if fruit is not as affordable as it once was, we can look to vegetables to provide vitamin C. Bell peppers are up there with the best, providing 128mg per 100gm of produce while broccoli delivers 89mg per 100gm of vegetable. Even the humble, average sized spud offers us 27mg of vitamin C if we eat it along with its skin.
Here’s a tip to get the most bang for your buck: vitamin C in garden produce decreases as the food containing it ages, ripens, and is stored. This is because vitamin C is lost over time and as produce is exposed to heat and light. Think about this next time you’re supermarket shopping and buy only the best produce you can find, and only in quantities that will see you enjoying it before it passes its peak. Consider storage, too, doing all you can to hold produce at its best before you use it. If you live far from shops, consider growing at least some of your produce in your home garden where you can harvest and eat it within a very short space of time.
Vitamin C in foods can be maximised by consuming the produce raw. You may like to do this via juicing, although using a high speed blender to whizz produce can be a better option as you are then consuming the food’s fibre as well. Salads, snacking portions of fresh produce, dips, and fresh fruit salads are great everyday options for consuming produce raw.
If you have trouble accessing foods rich in Vitamin C, or find it difficult to consume them in sufficient quantities, talk to your medical professional about dietary supplements which they may wish to recommend or prescribe.
Vitamin C is essential to good skin health, especially as we age, so make it a priority in your diet!
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