Vitamin C (also called ascorbic acid or ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin with potent antioxidant capabilities. Vitamin C is essential for many biological functions, most notably ensuring proper wound healing and maintaining cartilage. Some of the best sources of vitamin C include strawberries, citrus, tomatoes, potatoes and leafy greens.
As an antioxidant, vitamin C helps protect the body against the damaging effects of free radicals, by-products of metabolism. Free radicals can overwhelm healthy cells in the body under times of stress due to exhaustive endurance exercise, exposure to pollutants or smoking or other environmental insults. Damage caused by excessive free radicals has been linked to many diseases including cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and other conditions associated with aging.
The antioxidant capacity of fruits rich in vitamin C are theorized to be one explanation to why diets high in vitamin C from fruits and vegetables are associated with lower cancer risk, especially for oral, esophageal, stomach, colon and lung cancers. However, it seems that vitamin C, taken as a supplement, doesn't have the same effect. It's possible that some of the beneficial effects of vitamin C in fruits and vegetables may be due to a synergistic effect between vitamin C and other bioactive compounds found in fruits and vegetables.
The Dietary Reference Intake for women is 75 milligrams vitamin C daily and 90 milligrams for men. Strawberries are an excellent source of the water-soluble nutrient. In fact, a serving of eight medium strawberries provides 96 milligrams of vitamin C or 160 percent of the recommended Daily Value (60mg). That's more vitamin C than one medium orange, which contains 74 milligrams of vitamin C.
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