What does vitamin C do?

Vitamin C is an important antioxidant needed by the body for immune function, collagen production, reducing free radicals in the body and boosts absorption of other nutrients.

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, which means it dissolves in water. It is naturally present in foods, such as oranges, other citrus fruits, tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli, red and green peppers. You may also notice Vitamin C fortified in some grain foods such as cereal. Vitamin C is also available as a dietary supplement. Dietitians recommend obtaining your recommended intake from foods. However, supplements can be an option if for some reason, you cannot consume enough vitamin C from your foods. Always talk to your health provider first before starting this, however. 

Once consumed, vitamin C is transported to the body’s tissues, but it is not stored well. It is an essential nutrient, but one that our body can’t produce ourselves, so we need to consume large amounts of through food that we eat each day. 

The body needs a certain amount of vitamin C each day to keep the body healthy and functioning, in the following ways.

Vitamin C is an antioxidant that can help to reduce free radicals. This can be helpful, as an excess of free radicals can damage cells, according to Harvard University.

Harvard also explains that Vitamin C plays a role in the body’s immune system cells.

Dr Anneline Padayachee, a scientist from the University of Queensland, says another type of antioxidant behaviour by vitamin C is how it helps to protect tissues from “oxidative stress”. "Vitamin C does this by acting like a bodyguard against other water-soluble vitamins. If there is sufficient vitamin C present it will sacrifice itself to preserve the other nutrient, instead of destroying it”.

Vitamin C helps build the immune systems response by increasing immune messengers which has been shown to decrease the duration of a common cold.

It also helps prevent oxidative damage from invading foreign organisms and protects the mucous membranes in the eye, nose and digestive tract as a first line defence.

For those who mostly consume a plant-based diet, vitamin C helps improves the absorption of non-haem iron, those from plant based foods such as leafy greens. For example, having a glass of 100% orange juice can help boost iron absorption from a meal of spinach and lentils.

Vitamin C also helps to make collagen, a protein that's used to make skin, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels. Collagen is a protein that’s also found in the connective tissue throughout various systems in our body, including the immune and nervous system.

In this way, vitamin C also assists with wound healing, as connective tissue plays a vital role in wound healing.

Dr Padayachee explains that iron helps facilitate the reactions between particular amino acids in order to build the collagen. “Vitamin C helps to protect the iron and thereby allows this process to occur. Hence without iron & vitamin C, it would not occur.”

Vitamin C also helps to make hormones and chemical messengers used in our brain and nerves.

Vitamin C is also involved in protein metabolism, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH also notes that Vitamin C has been shown to regenerate other antioxidants within the body, including alpha-tocopherol, vitamin E.  

The Australian Recommended Dietary Intake (RDI) for vitamin C for adults is around 45 mg of vitamin C, which is equivalent to around half an orange or a cup of strawberries.

Breastfeeding women about 85 mg daily more, while children slightly less, around 35 mg to 40 mg daily.