Vitamin C is widely misunderstood, with no fault to the general populous, they are just under informed. It plays many important roles in the body: It cleans your body, it fights illness, it slows the signs of aging, and it can help prevent cancer.

In studies the number one sign of overall health was a higher vitamin C percent in blood. The FDA suggests your get about 70 mgs a day.

That is about the amount you would get from a single kiwi. This will not make you healthy; in fact having this little of vitamin C everyday would probably make you very susceptible to many different illnesses.

The FDAs Standards are bare minimum and only prevent the most malicious symptoms of scurvy from manifesting. Scurvy is a disease that was contracted by sailors who would live off of mutton for months at a time-it is fatal.

So if all you’re aiming for with your nutrition ambition is to not die from scurvy, well then the recommended daily value is probably good for you. It has been shown that people can consume up to 2000 mg supplements every day without having any bad side effects.

If you are getting your Vitamin C through the food you eat, there is no limit to the amount that is good for you, and any that you cannot use your body will pass on through the urinary tract. 500 mg supplements of it are the most popular.

However, when taking any vitamins in concentrated form you should be careful. Take the non-acidic buffered form of the vitamin; this will protect your stomach lining.

Interestingly enough, humans are only one of three mammals on the planet that do not produce vitamin C in their blood. The other two are the guinea pig and the fruit bat.

It has baffled many scientists for many years why we do not. Apparently there is evidence to support, by our genetic make-up, that we once did produce our own vitamin C just like all the other animals.

I assume the point in time we stopped making our own Vitamin C was about around the time of the fall of Adam-that’s just a guess. Your cats and dogs have enzymes that create thousands of mgs of it a day.

In mammals that have the enzyme capable of creating vitamin C, they can live up to 10 times the age of maturity, where the ones without the enzyme can only live up to 4 times the age of maturity. Using this equation on humans, if we genetically reawaken our now latent enzyme, we could theoretically live to the age of 300 years old.