If for ANY reason, fresh fruits become scarce...we lose our most readily available source for vitamin C. Growing your own food as vitamin C food source is one option
We underestimate the true valueof Vitamin C, simply because we can have a bottle of supplements bought over the counter in a jiffy. Or get our fix from fruit juices or fresh fruits at the food stand.
But during extreme situations when even fresh food that may contain this life giving nutrient suddenly become scarce, not having vitamin C available will spell the difference between staying healthy in a difficult situation and surviving.
Our food supply is maintained by the efficient delivery of a supply grid that sources fresh produce from distant farms, and even from other countries for particular fruits or food products.
If for any extreme situation THAT grid goes offline and the only food available quckly runs out of the grocers and food shops, it would be like getting stuck in a ship in the middle of a journey to another place and your food supplies suddenly becoming your remaining lifeline. Remember the anime Graveyard of the Fireflies? That is not a sappy cartoon, it reflects what may happen during extreme situations and those who can grow their own food are those who keep alive.
You don't want to suffer from scurvy or get sickly once food becomes hard to get.
Keeping plenty of stock of vitamin C in your larder will keep you in good stead and you can use it as barter stock for other essential food items or whatever you may need. Growing your own food, like keeping one or two robust calamansi and malunggay trees in your backyard may help save your family when an extreme situation hits your community like a storm surge or worse.
For the moment, having vitamin C available in the fruits and vegetables that we eat, and being able to go into any grocer or market and get fruits and veggies is one precious thing most of us take for granted.
Growing vegetables in containers may provide you with ample reserve of food that replenishes itself. If the food supply grid is cut off in your community, not having vitamin C can cost you your health in the long run.
Health Benefits
Vitamin C is an antioxidant as well as a vital life giving phytonutrient that enables our cells to rebuild themselves, and helps us avoid getting stressed out. Our immune system is better equipped to fight infection if we have a constant supply of vitamin C in our diet.
A high dosage of vitamin C is also a possible cure and defense against the Ebola virus, which shows us how powerful the nutrient is in keeping us alive and helping us fight stress and infection, although this recommendation is still under study and is criticized by some as overplaying vitamin C's health prowess.
Get Your Vitamin C and Store Extra Too!
The best source of Vitamin C is in citrus fruits like oranges, lemons and calamansi, but you can also get them from green leafy vegetables and fruits rich in lycopene: tomatoes, potatoes, papaya, melons and cantaloupe, mango, cabbage, red and green peppers, cauliflower, watermelons and even malunggay, which is one of the most underrated sources of vitamin C
To keep a daily dosage of Vitamin C you can rely on over the counter vitamin tablets from your health store. Don’t worry about getting an overdose of this. Our body doesn’t store excess Vitamin C and we do require at least 500 mg daily to keep fit. Drink plenty of water too when you imbibe vitamin C so that your kidneys and bladder won't have a hard time flushing out the Vitamin C-bonded free radicals, or so you won't get to acidic and get an ulcer.
When food runs out from the supply grid like in extreme situations: Typhoon Ondoy or the Tacloban disaster with storm surge Yolanda destroying the entire lifeline of that province from power grid to food supply access, keeping a ready source of essential nutrients like vitamin C in your garden fruit and malunggay trees or vegetable container garden or having a good stock of fresh vitamin C tablet supplements is a lifesaver.
Keeping vitamin C supplements in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight helps your stock keep safe and last for as long as the marked expiration date on the bottle. Keep your stocks well stored too,
