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 35mg of vitamin C a day
• older children and adults get around 40mg of vitamin C a day (people who smoke or drink large amounts 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

It's very easy for most people to getthe recommended daily amount (RDA) of vitamin C from their 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 overly harmful. The only adverse effects you would experience if you were to regularly eat more than 1000mg of vitamin C a day (the equivalent of eatingabout 15 oranges)would be stomach pain, Traveller's diarrhoea and flatulence .

Sources of vitamin C

Fruit and vegetables are some of the bestsources of vitamin C, including:

• oranges
• lemons
• limes
• grapefruits
• blackcurrants
• strawberries
• kiwi fruits
• tomatoes
• broccoli
• asparagus
• cabbage
• green peppers
• sprouts
• sweet potatoes

It's better to eat raw fruit and vegetables because vitamin C is easily destroyed during cooking. If you cook vegetables, it's a good idea to steam rather than boil them, because 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 aren't eaten soon after purchase.

, food and diet and the eatwell plate .