Ascorbic Acid?

Ascorbic acid has another name, Vitamin c. Vitamin c is very important for our optimum health for many reasons, the more important of which are immune related. Vitamin c is an anti-oxidant and unlike many animals humans do not have the ability to make vitamin c in our bodies and therefore we must obtain vitamin c from our diet. For centuries our early ancestors saw the importance of a diet which included vitamin c, although at the time they did not know what it was. There are recorded instances of sailors dying from an unknown disease and native Indians saving them with a concoction made of the arbor vitae or translated it means, “the tree of life”. The arbor vitae is now known as the Eastern White Cedar tree and the needles of the tree are now known to have a 50mg of the vitamin c for every 100 grams of needles that are boiled and drunk as a tea.

The magic of the vitamin c’ main ingredient wasn’t isolated until 1933. In 1933 ascorbic acid was isolated and a year later it was synthesized. Prior to the isolation of ascorbic acid, seafaring men had to deal with many long weeks at sea and in the 18th century sailors began drinking lemon juice or shipping limes with their cargo as to stave off the infamous disease of vitamin c deficiency, scurvy.

Modern Vitamin C

Today we have vitamin c available to us in many forms and in many foods. It is used as a preservative, anti-oxidant and as a nutritional supplement. In our processed foods we will see ascorbic acid, vitamin c by its formal name, used often. It is used to keep colors and flavours and in frozen foods for example it keeps vegetables from turning brown. It is of course used because it is a vitamin. Today we can drink our vitamin c, eat our vitamin c, chew our vitamin c, and take a pill once a day to ensure we get all our necessary vitamins. Scurvy is not a prevalent and fatal disease and we do not refer to trees as arbor vitae in time of need.

Controversy

There is a long controversy behind this vitamin which has followed it since its real scientific isolation in 1933. Today there is still a strong following behind the vitamin c craze. Many people have studied and tested this nutrient and come to conclusions, some of which are; Vitamin c is a cure or at least a defence against the common cold. Vitamin c can ward off and prevent heart attack. Vitamin c can prevent cataracts from forming. Vitamin c can extend your life. Some have even claimed that this scurvy fighting nutrient can cure cancer. Whatever you think, trust that a relatively moderate consumption of this vitamin is important to your overall health and will continue to be as long as human beings cannot produce this nutrient on their own.