hello i'm dr janine bowring naturopathic doctor and today's topic of discussion is the invention
of vitamin c so the history of vitamin c is actually very interesting you may have heard
about it but before we get into that thank you for joining me today be sure to give me
a big thumbs up at the end of this video and make sure that you're subscribed and you turn on your
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someone that you believe will benefit from this wonderful natural information all about vitamin
c so the history goes back into the european ships that were coming over from europe over
to north america between the 16th and 18th century and something called scurvy so a lack of vitamin c
it was discovered killed more than 2 million sailors and it wasn't until 1753 that a scottish
naval surgeon named james land actually discovered that if the sailors consumed lemons and the juice
of lemons that they didn't get the symptoms of scurvy nor did they die so it actually saved their
lives what's interesting is that humans don't make vitamin c we're one of the few animals that
don't make vitamin c including guinea pigs and apes as well and that's because we actually lack
a special enzyme called l-glonolactone oxidase enzyme and that's for critical for the last
step of vitamin c synthesis it was discovered in 1930 and albert saint georgie actually won
the nobel prize for this because he discovered that it was possible to isolate ascorbic acid
from red peppers now what's really interesting to note here is that he actually published in his
paper that ascorbic acid wasn't bioavailable or active when removed from the red pepper
so what that means is that the body's ability to utilize that vitamin c was compromised when it was
not in the whole food form of the red pepper and that's something that i always talk about
about getting our vitamins and minerals from whole food sources is always the best way to do it as
mother nature intended so how do northern cultures get their vitamin c well that was a question that
i had in my own mind because if you think about it the further north that you go from the equator
and certainly in you know cultures when eating the their native diets if you think of the inuit they
you know had relatively no access to fresh fruits and vegetables in that harsh arctic environment
so how did they get their vitamin c well there's something called muktuk and this was actually from
the whale skin and the fat of a beluga whale also some seafood and fish their internal organ meat
contains natural vitamin c which humans of course can use so that's how historically now whether
they still follow their their cultural diet you know without having the north american or other
parts of the world influence on their diet because now of course we can ship food in but those eating
their traditional inuit diet get the vitamin c from those sources from the sea which of course
is very interesting so thanks for joining me today i'm dr janine barron naturopathic doctor and today
we talked all about the invention of vitamin c and some interesting tidbit facts about vitamin c be
sure to give me a big thumbs up and share this video with those of you who think will benefit
from this information also be sure to always take care of your good health and do it naturally
you