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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Health is Wealth

Hello Friends,
We all hear that "Health is Wealth" from our elders. To maintain the better health we need to understand lot of things. In today's fast life & food habits we are not getting proper nutrition for optimal health. So i would like to share few basics about smart nutrition secretes with all of you.
Lets Start this with C Vitamin. when it comes to Vitamins, every one will say that we are taking Optimal food for better health. That may be correct but lets see how much Vitamin C we need per day & how much Vitamin C will be there in your everyday food.
Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid is an essential nutrient for humans.The vast majority of animals and plants are able to synthesize their own vitamin C, through a sequence of four enzyme-driven steps, which convert glucose to vitamin C. The glucose needed to produce ascorbate in the liver (in mammals and perching birds) is extracted from glycogen; ascorbate synthesis is a glycogenolysis-dependent process. In reptiles and birds the biosynthesis is carried out in the kidneys.
Among the animals that have lost the ability to synthesise vitamin C are simians (specifically the suborder haplorrhini, which includes humans),These animals all lack the L-gulonolactone oxidase (GULO) enzyme, which is required in the last step of vitamin C synthesis, because they have a defective form of the gene for the enzyme. Some of these species (including humans) are able to make do with the lower levels available from their diets by recycling oxidised vitamin C.
In humans, vitamin C is essential to a healthy diet as well as being a highly effective antioxidant, acting to lessen oxidative stress; a substrate for ascorbate peroxidase; and an enzyme co-factor for the biosynthesis of many important biochemicals. Vitamin C acts as an electron donor for eight different enzymes.

Antioxidant
Ascorbic acid is well known for its antioxidant activity. Ascorbate acts as reducing agent to reverse oxidation in aqueous solution. When there are more free radicals (Reactive oxygen species) in the body versus antioxidant, human is under the condition called Oxidative stress. Oxidative stress induced diseases encompass cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, chronic inflammatory diseases and diabetes. The plasma Ascorbate concentration in oxidative stress patient (less than 45umol/L) measured is lower than healthy individual (61.4-80umol/L). According to McGregor and Biesalski increasing plasma ascorbate level may have therapeutic effects in oxidative stress individual. Individual with oxidative stress and healthy individual have different pharmacokinetics of ascorbate.

Recommendations for vitamin C intake have been set by various national agencies:

60 milligrams per day: the United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency
75 milligrams per day: the World Health Organization
60 mg/day: Health Canada 2007
60–95 milligrams per day: United States' National Academy Of Sciences.


The United States defined Tolerable upper intake level for a 25-year-old male is 2,000 milligrams per day.




Mostly when all the about items are not cooked the vitamin C availablity is given, When you cook the that might change.

If you need any more information feel free to email me @ sriram.adviser@gmail.com

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