Vitamin C-eason
Lynsey Vaughan - Higher Nature Nutritionist & Product Innovation - MSc
Our new Vitamin C Powder helps you shift into the new season with naturally empowered strength and protection.
What makes it special?
The world's highest strength naturally sourced vitamin C to fuel your vitality and beauty from within.
Carefully sourced, pure plant goodness from rosehips, with no added ingredients. These fruits are an ancient superfood which have a rich history of use in traditional medicine. A naturally potent source of vitamin C, rosehip's vibrant colour also reflects their abundance of powerful polyphenols, boasting over 130 identified bioactive compounds.
Natural vitamin C supplements provide lower levels of vitamin C compared to pure synthetic ascorbic acid. However, real food vitamin C from rosehips offers strength in synergy, as it comes with a range of beneficial polyphenols and plant nutrients naturally present in the fruits which help your body absorb and use the vitamin C more effectively, as well as providing their own additional antioxidant benefits that you won’t get with isolated man-made synthetics.
Our True Food® Vitamin C Powder is the highest strength available, with 45% natural vitamin C. This means a little goes a long way- just ½ teaspoon delivers 1000mg wholefood vitamin C directly from rosehips.
This makes it easy to therapeutically dose and is great for value and taste, with no need to add spoonful's of powder to your drinks. Other brands offer sources which provide vitamin C concentrations ranging from 5 to 19%, compared to our 45%.
What does vitamin C do? It’s a whole body health essential
Although best known for strengthening immunity, Vitamin C is fundamental in nourishing whole body health and vitality. As an antioxidant powerhouse and essential cofactor to spark energy it helps protect and energise your whole body at the cellular level.
Collagen C-onnection
Without vitamin C, our bodies start falling apart. This is because it’s needed to form collagen, which is the most abundant protein in the body, promoting healthy skin, tissues, muscles, bones and more, contributing to the normal functioning of nearly all our vital organs.
The word collagen comes from the Ancient Greek word kólla (κολλα), meaning “glue”, because it helps strengthen and hold tissues together.
When collagen production is impaired, we get widespread tissue breakdown, blood vessel weakness and a host of unpleasant symptoms.
Antioxidant Powerhouse
In addition to helping hold us together, vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant, helping to protect our cells and DNA from damage which fuel inflammation and ageing processes.
Cellular damage can occur naturally as part of normal reactions and processes in the body but also arises from internal and external stressors such as infections, toxins, environmental pollutants, radiation, excessive sun exposure, high blood sugar levels and more.
Oxidative stress is a hall mark of all disease, so a diet high in antioxidant rich sources has been shown to help protect against disease promoting processes.
Vitamin C is a real team player as it helps to recycle other antioxidants such as vitamin E, helping to further support antioxidant activity in the body.
Vibrant Energy
Vitamin C is key to unlocking vibrant energy in two vital ways.
Firstly, it’s directly involved in fuelling cellular energy production due to its roles as an enzyme cofactor.
Secondly, it helps enhance iron absorption. Iron is the most common nutrient deficiency but is fundamental for feeling energised. This mineral is needed to help carry oxygen to every cell to fuel energy production and is also vital for thyroid hormones which support every process.
Immunity Hero
Vitamin C has numerous roles in keeping us protected as it helps produce infection fighting white blood cells such as lymphocytes, phagocytes and neutrophils.
These cells need high levels of vitamin C to help protect themselves against oxidative damage which they use to destroy pathogens.
Vitamin C also enhances T and B cell function key for fighting unwelcome invaders. It increases iron absorption which is an essential mineral for immunity and energy to keep us going too.
Brain longevity, mood and cognition
One of the highest concentrations of vitamin C in your body? Your brain.
That’s because the brain is an incredibly metabolically active organ, so vitamin C is needed to help protect brain cells from all the activity which powers our thoughts, feelings, movements etc.
Vitamin C is also needed to form key neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine which influence our physical and mental well-being in a huge way.
The Stress C-onnection
You might have heard that vitamin C gets used up when stressed, and this is because it's involved in both sides of the stress response.
Vitamin C is needed to make stress hormones cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline, and is also needed to protect our cells from the consequences of this stress response and help bring us back to equilibrium.
Vitamin C is essential for normal psychological and nervous system function and there are interesting studies which have shown that high dose vitamin C supplementation results in reduced cortisol, blood pressure and subjective feelings of stress in response to stressors.
Why Supplement?
Around 61 million years ago, thanks to a gene mutation we lost the ability to make our own vitamin C. This means we must get it from our diets to ensure we don’t fall short on this vital nutrient.
In the UK the suggested daily intake is just 40mg from 15 years of age onwards which is much lower than recommendations in both the US and EU countries.
However, these recommendations only reflect the daily intake for healthy individuals to prevent deficiency, not to support optimal health.
As the first vitamin to be discovered, there is lots of evidence that shows broad ranging benefits from taking between 500mg to 1000mg a day. Too much for one blog, so keep an eye out for upcoming posts diving deeper into the evidence on vitamin C and its many health benefits for us.
Mind the Nutrient Gap
The best sources of vitamin C are fresh fruits and vegetables (as vitamin C degrades with heat), however recent data suggests that in the UK less than 1/3 adults manage the recommended five or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
Evidence also shows that nearly 1/4 of adults are not getting enough vitamin C.
Even though the goal should always be to increase intakes from foods, because then you’re getting all the other wonderful nutrients alongside the vitamin C, a natural but potent supplement like our powder is a convenient and delicious way to top up levels and elevate your daily health rituals.
Supercharged Synergy
Hopefully this has given you a sense of how hard working and fundamental this single nutrient is to your whole-body health and vitality.
Our high potency rosehip powder offers a simple solution to supercharge your daily health ritual for naturally powered body and mind wellness. Simply stir, sip and glow from within.
