Vitamin C is a nutrient of great importance for our body that we can find in a variety of fresh foods, such as various fruits and vegetables. However, it is a very fragile nutrient and therefore, we leave you the best tips to preserve the maximum vitamin C in your citrus fruits and other foods.
Vitamin C, key this season
The vitamin C It is a micronutrient that our body requires in small amounts every day, but which is key to protecting health.
In this season, its presence on our table is essential since vitamin C plays a leading role in the functioning of the immune system and it can be helpful in relieving cold and flu symptoms thus shortening the duration of these respiratory infections.
Vitamin C can help protect cardiovascular health, take care of the health of our bones and because it has an antioxidant effect, it reduces oxidative stress, helping to prevent various diseases, including degenerative diseases such as cancer.
As if that were not enough, it has been inversely associated with the proportion of body fat and therefore may be useful. to maintain a healthy body weight and a fit body.
For all this, the Vitamin C is essential for the care of our body and your health, and we cannot miss the content of citrus or other source foods.
Keys to maximizing vitamin C
As we have said, vitamin C is a micronutrient of great value to protect the health of the organism and at the same time, it is one of the most volatile vitamins and easy to miss.
In fact, after being harvested, fresh fruits and vegetables, which are the main source of vitamin C in our body, begin to lose this micronutrient and its content is considerably reduced by storage, handling and cooking.
For all this, and to preserve the maximum content of vitamin C of citrus fruits as well as other food sources of this nutrient, we leave the following advice:
- Consume fresh fruits and vegetables whenever possible since the mere fact of subjecting them to cooking promotes the loss of this nutrient.
- Remove the skin of fruits or vegetables just before eating, since it favors the conservation of nutrients and antioxidants contained in fruits or vegetables.
- Store in a cool place citrus fruits and other food sources of vitamin C, such as the fridge.
- Keep away from sunlight whenever possible, for which we can go to an opaque container to store our fruits or vegetables and then deposit them in a cool place.
- Avoid cooking in plenty of water such as boiling, since vitamin C is a water-soluble micronutrient and is considerably reduced after cooking methods in aqueous media.
- Keep fruits or vegetables that have been cut, grated or peeled in a covered container; since it has been proven that storage in the refrigerator in a covered container reduces the loss of vitamin C considerably in fruit juice.
With these keys we can preserve to the maximum the content of vitamin C of foods such as citrus fruits and others, which offer this micronutrient with an antioxidant function and many benefits for the body.
In DAP | Properties of citrus fruits, what happens to vitamin C and other nutrients when cooking them?
Image | Jumpstory and Unsplash