Vitamin C: The Myth, the Legend

Vitamin C: The Myth, the Legend

Vitamin C is one of the most commonly-referred to supplement in magazines, on websites and around the doctor’s office. While most people know how to get it, few know exactly what it does: they only know they should have it, and think twice about skipping the orange juice at breakfast. But if the benefits and powers of vitamin C are not understood, then the dangers of deficiency are not understood either. More often than not, the consequences of vitamin shortages are more important to know than the advantages.

Too Little

Vitamin C is found in animals as well as plants, but it is predominately associated with fruits of the citrus variety. In fact, the association between the vitamin and ascorbic acid was not discovered until, in a sense, it was too late. Scurvy tormented humanity for centuries, and was first written about by Aristotle in 450 B.C. A syndrome characterized by gum inflammation, tooth decay, hemorrhaging and lethargy, it destroyed entire navies during the 1700s. When lemon juice was found to cure the disease, the mystery of vitamin C was uncovered.

In a normal, primitive diet, vitamin C deficiencies would not exist.