Food experts at Arizona State University reported at a nutrition conference April 3 that vitamin C in the blood is directly linked to fat "oxidation," which is the body's ability to use fat as a fuel source both during exercise and rest.

"It is important to understand the impact of vitamin C deficiency, because it affects about 15 percent of adults in the United States, up from only 3-5 percent 25 years ago," said Dr. Carol Johnston, a university registered dietitian and nutrition professor who led the research. She blamed the deficiencies partly on food manufacturers' processing methods that destroy vitamin C with light, oxygen and heat.

Failing to fight fat

The four-week study included 20 obese men and women who took either 500 daily milligrams of vitamin C a day or took fake pills for comparison's sake. All were given low-fat weight-loss plans, which contained 67 percent of the 40-milligram recommended daily allowance for vitamin C.

At the study's start, people with the lowest amount of vitamin C in their blood had the highest body fat mass and failed to burn fat for energy when compared to the less obese participants. But vitamin C in the blood jumped by 30 percent for people who took vitamin C supplements and fell 27 percent in the comparison group where members didn't take the nutrient, according to the results.

Helping stave off aging?

In addition, the ability of people's bodies in the comparison group to burn fat dropped 11 percent. But thanks to the low-fat diets, people in both groups shed about nine pounds, which meant vitamin C depletion didn't affect a person's ability to lose weight over the short haul.

Researchers are now trying to come up with the same findings in people who aren't on low-fat diets.

Meanwhile, Japanese researchers recently underscored recently the importance of vitamin C when their study found that lab mice lacking the nutrient aged four times faster than normal mice. They reached their conclusions after studying a protein that decreases in the body as people age, and discovered the same protein synthesizes vitamin C.

After six months, normal mice with the protein were alive, but half of the rodents lacking the protein had died of old age because the level of vitamin C was one-tenth that of the level in normal mice, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Benefiting tissues, skin, muscles, bones . . .

A member of the antioxidant family, vitamin C is required for growth and repair of tissues throughout the body, and the forming of collagen, a protein that makes make skin, scar tissue, tendons, ligaments and blood vessels. Vitamin C also benefits healing of wounds and repairs and maintains cartilage, bones and teeth.

Vitamin C also impedes the buildup of "free radicals," byproducts left behind when bodies turn food into energy. Over time, the free radicals make bodies age and lead to cancer, heart disease, arthritis and other afflictions.

However, the human body does not manufacture or store vitamin C, so people must ensure their eating plans include plenty of vitamin C products, according to the National Institutes of Health. All fruits and vegetables contain some amount of vitamin C, but the ones that pack the punch include green peppers, citrus fruits and juices, strawberries, tomatoes, broccoli, turnip greens and other leafy greens, sweet and white potatoes, cantaloupe, papaya, mango, watermelon, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, winter squash, red peppers, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, and pineapples.

Johnson, meanwhile, said orange juice possesses one of the highest concentrations of vitamin C, but the amounts in popular ready-to-drink brands can drop by 45 milligrams to zero within four weeks. She recommended buying the juice far away from the expiration dates on the cartons and drinking the juice as soon as possible, according to ASU Insight, a university publication.

A previous study by Johnson found that frozen, reconstituted orange juice contains more vitamin C than ready-to-drink juice.

Click here for more information on vitamin C from the National Institutes of Health and here for a Nubella article.

Source: Nubella News
Posted by: Steve Smith
Reference: Arizona State University
Website: www.nubella.com

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