I searched for healthy food.
Food that contains vitamin C and if possible more as just one vitamin. Something complete some food that does good. Superfood?
How did people stay healthy about 50-100 years ago? At that time they drank and smoked way more as these days. What did they eat to get all those high rates of vitamins and minerals the experts tell us we need these days? What was on their menu?
In most families there were only 6 different menus. On Mondays people always ate the same, just like the other days of the week. Everyone knew what was on the menu. One day a week was meant for the leftovers.
Food was boiled till it lost its color and looked like snot. People lived from potatoes, beans, cabbage, cheese, yogurt, and some meat 6 days a week. The meat was fried on Monday and heated up the rest of the week.
My daughter and I both agree there is no way to stay healthy with our budget. We can keep ourselves alive and that's it. Alive with hair loss, stress, skin troubles, painful eyes, and mouth.
An interesting question is if you can be healthy at all with food only.
If this is the case how much does one need to eat to stay healthy?
This question cannot be easily answered. It all depends on the body, it's personal needs.
The fact is we all do not use the same amount of minerals, vitamins, and energy plus we digest in a different way.
How much vitamin C needs a person daily?
The first answer given was: 75 mg a day. As I searched further the answers were between 85 - 1000 mg a day.
Just for your information: 1 apple (a fresh one) provides in 10 mg which means you need to eat at least 9 apples a day to keep the doctor away.
Since we can only eat what we have in stock...
I searched for food with vitamin C.
Pineapple is present, does contain vitamin C. Because it's canned it lost 50-60% of what a fresh one contains but it is vitamin C and still as much as one apple.
I have red beets and if I eat 200 grams it's the same amount as one apple.
Strawberries I really like (not available): 100 grams is 29 mg of vitamin C.
The price of 250 grams of strawberries will be close to 5-6 euros. For that amount, our family can eat at least two days.
Red pepper (not available): 100 grams should contain about 127 mg vitamins C which means it contains as much as two oranges or two kiwi's (both not available). Red pepper is expensive where I live.
Red cabbage is in my cupboard and it contains vitamins C. They say it's a superfood and its vitamin C level should be higher than the level in green cabbages (how much higher?). I assume my cabbage lost vitamins because it's not fresh but the experts are not sure about it.
Interesting how red food frequently turns out to be more healthy as green or is it something they want us to believe?
"Can I eat vegetables instead", my daughter asked.
She can. Spinach, potatoes, cabbage (especially the red one!), and Brussels sprouts (100 grams is good for 132 mg of vitamin C). Still, this is hardly sufficient to stay healthy or to fill a lack. Imagine you need 1000 mg or more a day, how much apples or Brussels sprouts you need to eat!
What you should know about vitamin C is the body cannot store it.
Too much means it's peed out which means you need to keep eating and the question rises if this is what needs to be done if it comes to vitamin C only or all vitamins and minerals.
With how much food does one need to stuff himself to get sufficient vitamins and minerals or/and get rid of the huge lack he already has? You can ask around but if it comes to it no one has the answer. They are all guessing and that is what I have to do too since no one knows what is good for you, how high your personal need is to (finally) feel fit.
There are 1001 reasons why one has wrinkles, acne, allergies, hair loss, constipation, diarrhea, is overweighted, the immune system lost track, one is overactive, suffers from sleepless nights, has bad eyesight (vitamin A for example).
Only three things are for sure:
1. Each body has it's own needs
2. You can never eat enough to get all the vitamins/minerals you need.
3. It is way harder to digest/get vitamins and minerals out of vegetables than animals (big chance the 10 mg in an apple turns into 2 mg only for your body to use.)
Through the years governments and food gurus have been mistaken more as once.
The food pyramid is a good example of that. Food advice is frequently given by the food industry. They want to sell more diaries, more apples, more fruit, more vegetables...
The huge amount of medication people take these centuries, fast food, etc might be a reason why the levels of nutrients, vitamins increased too, but to be honest I am not convinced about it. The only thing I know is it's not realistic and it never was and the dose of vitamins and minerals we seem to need increases quickly. It is something to worry about.
A small glass of juice (100 gram) contains 25-50 mg of vitamin C. If you ask me a glass of juice is healthier than an apple.
Very interesting