Scurvy - Preventing scurvy
The best way to prevent scurvy is to eat a healthy, balanced diet that contains plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.
This will ensure that you have enough vitamin C in your body at all times.
Recommendations
It's recommended that:
- babies (0-12 months old) get around 25mg of vitamin C a day
- children 1-10 years old get around 30mg of vitamin C a day
- children 11-14 years old get around 35 mg of vitamin C a day
- older children and adults get around 40mg of vitamin C a day (smokers and heavy drinkers of alcohol may require slightly more)
- pregnant women get 50mg of vitamin C a day
- breastfeeding mothers get around 70-75mg of vitamin C a day
For most people, it's very easy to get the daily recommended amount of vitamin C from your diet. For example, eating one large orange, a bowl of strawberries or a single kiwi fruit would provide you with more than enough vitamin C to meet your body's needs.
Consuming more than the amounts of vitamin C outlined above isn't harmful. You would only suffer adverse effects, such as diarrhoea and flatulence, if you were regularly eating more than 1000mg of vitamin C a day, which is the equivalent of eating about 15 oranges.
Sources of vitamin C
Fruit and vegetables are some of the best sources of vitamin C, including:
- oranges
- lemons
- limes
- grapefruits
- blackcurrants
- kiwi fruits
- tomatoes
- broccoli
- asparagus
- cabbage
- green peppers
- sprouts
- sweet potatoes
It's better to eat raw fruit and vegetables as vitamin C is easily destroyed during cooking. If you cook vegetables, it is a good idea to steam rather than boil them as vitamin C dissolves in water.
Levels of vitamin C also gradually reduce during storage, so frozen vegetables can have a higher vitamin C content than fresh vegetables that are not eaten soon after purchase.
Read more about healthy eating, food and diet and the eatwell plate.
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