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We all know the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. But does that also apply to the superfood avocado? What happens if you eat them every day?

The avocado is considered a real superfood. But what exactly is the pear-shaped fruit all about? And is she really that healthy? The avocado originally comes from Mexico. It now also grows in subtropical areas such as southern Spain or Israel. Depending on the variety, the fruits of the avocado tree can weigh up to a kilogram and can take on different shades of green.

Avocado: Why is the superfood so healthy?

In contrast to most fruits, the avocado contains hardly any sugar, but a lot of fiber. In addition, the consumption of avocados provides important minerals, including iron, calcium and phosphate. Especially in the vegan diet, the high-fat fruit is used in many recipes due to its numerous nutrients. The avocado is actually a true superfood. The green fruit is especially good for:
The cholesterol level
The cardiovascular system
The care of our skin
According to studies, an avocado a day lowers the so-called “bad cholesterol” (LDL cholesterol), since our body mainly needs unsaturated fatty acids for metabolism. The fatty acids in the avocado are responsible for promoting the “good” HDL cholesterol. This in turn ensures that the LDL cholesterol is removed from the arteries.

In addition, the daily consumption of avocados also makes you happy: it supports the formation of the happiness hormone serotonin.

It’s so easy to integrate the avocado into your diet

Most people know avocados in the form of guacamole, the popular Mexican dip often eaten with chips. On the other hand, if you want to include an avocado in your daily diet, you can eat the valuable fruit pure or prepare it with other healthy foods. Very tasty: sliced avocado with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt. Since the avocado is very creamy due to its high fat content, it is ideal as a butter substitute, in dressings or in smoothies.

For further use, simply cut the avocado in half, deseed and scrape out with a spoon. The crushed pulp can also be enjoyed wonderfully on a rice waffle or as a vitamin-rich bread topping.

Conclusion: The avocado is clearly one of the fattest fruits. Depending on the variety, their flesh contains 15 to 25 percent fat. But this fat consists mostly of unsaturated fatty acids. For this reason, the avocado is an extremely healthy food, despite the many calories (compared to other types of fruit).

Lifestyle

5 Quality Criteria When Buying a Winter Jacket

At the latest when the first frosty days set in, it is time to dig out the warm jumpers, scarves, and winter jackets again. You quickly realize that the old winter jacket has now done its job and a new one is needed.

Important purchase criteria for winter jackets

When buying women’s winter jackets, you should make sure that they have a high-quality finish and are of particularly good quality, so that you don’t have to start looking for a suitable jacket again the following winter because the old one has already done its job after one winter Has. Here are a few tips that can make it easier to find the right women’s winter jacket.

1) Quality is the most important thing

Especially when it comes to winter jackets, you should definitely not do without good quality. One should specifically pay attention to warmth and functionality. Good brand quality always pays off in the end and it is better to invest a little more in a valuable jacket and wear it for several winters than to fall back on inferior goods and these finally give up after just one winter and burst at the seams, or the inner lining says goodbye. In particular, the quality of seams, inner lining, and the surface finish of a jacket are decisive for a short or rather long life.

2) Should it really be down?

Down jackets keep you warm, but if you don’t have a dryer, for example, you shouldn’t use a down jacket. Unless you don’t want to wash this jacket yourself. Down jackets have to be tumble dried after washing, otherwise, there is a risk that the individual feathers in the jacket filling will clump together and the jacket will no longer be warm. In addition, it no longer looks as nice if the filling is only in certain areas such as the sleeve ends or the bottom hem of the jacket. Animal lovers should also consider whether it really should be a jacket filled with soft down from plucked geese.

3) Synthetic fibers are warm and soft

Nowadays there are a number of different types of synthetic fibers, which are just as warm as down but are generally much easier to clean. These jackets can easily be washed according to the washing instructions and do not necessarily have to be put in the dryer. This makes these jackets all-rounders that will last for many years and winters. It is important to note that these jackets also have a quilted pattern. This is the best way for the fiber to be distributed and heat protection is given.

4) Long or tailored?

Of course, it’s warmest when the jacket goes over the buttocks. The longer, the warmer. Women’s jackets are usually either fitted or a little longer. If you prefer to wear tailored jackets, you should choose a jacket that can be closed well, maybe has a collar that you can turn up and preferably also has a hood. At least in cold and stormy weather, the upper body including the head and neck is warmed. Of course, longer jackets also warm the area over the hips and also the thighs, which cool down particularly quickly in winter. And if you like it very warm, you should fall back on a quilted coat that reaches to the ankles or below the knees. So you are guaranteed to be on the warm side.

5) Color and surface finish

The color of a winter jacket changes every year depending on taste and trend, especially for women’s jackets. However, since you want to wear the jacket for as many winters as possible, it is advisable not to go too much with the trend and rather to fall back on classics. Colors such as beige, light brown, gray or black, and dark red are always in and are preferred in the fashion world, especially in the autumn and winter months. You are guaranteed to be up to date with these colors in autumn and winter. The surface of a winter jacket should be made of new wool, or at least a high proportion of new wool, or a water-repellent surface that is windproof and can be worn well in the rain without getting soaked right away. This is particularly important if you want to take the jacket with you on a winter holiday.

Lifestyle

These 5 Things Women Like to Hear When Flirting

You can learn to flirt! Whether at work, via WhatsApp, or in the dating app – with these tips you will become a flirt professional and always have the right topic of conversation at hand if your counterpart expresses interest.

Harmless flirtation, serious interest, or compliments in an existing relationship: good communication is always the key to success. It depends on various factors: What do women really want to hear? How serious is the message? What role do facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice, and body language play? Men who want to be well received by women have been dealing with these questions since time immemorial.

Most want neither macho nor softie, just honest men who have a real interest in a woman that goes beyond the known mechanisms. Whether you want to compliment your colleague, surprise the lady at the supermarket checkout with a friendly attitude, or win the woman over for life is not that important. What matters is that you are authentic. Trust your intuition and imagine how you would like to be addressed. Loving and open or clumsy and primitive? The answer is obvious! In the following text, you will find interesting details, about what women would like to hear – with a little luck and the right chemistry you will hit the bull’s eye!

1) Let your eyes do the talking

You don’t have to say anything in the first few seconds. Smile because a smile is the shortest distance between two people. And then you say whatever pops into your head, as long as it’s not silly pick-up lines. Refer to something that particularly catches your eye. This can be a confident “You look great today!” or a detailed comment, for example about the hair, a piece of clothing, or the woman’s charisma. It is important that you mean what you say. Most women have an extremely fine sense of hearing and also perceive the undertones.

2) Show interest in the woman

This means that you should ask questions – whether you’re flirting face to face or via a dating app or online dating. Find out how the other person is doing, and how the day went. Ask out of genuine interest and not just “because it’s supposed to be like that”. Listen. Compliments about looks are good, but starting a conversation is better. You can achieve this if you listen carefully, don’t immediately interrupt the woman, and start reporting your own experiences or thoughts. Put your conversation partner in the center! Questions are allowed, as is feedback. But sometimes, simple, understanding listening is best. Especially if you already know the other person well: Refrain from giving advice unless you are asked for advice!

3) Let your heart speak

Call it what you want: flirt, togetherness, friendship, bed relationship, marriage, partnership, one-night stand – every relationship between two people is based on unique moments. Say exactly what you feel! Depending on the situation, sentences such as “You are so beautiful today”, “Your smile enchants my day” or “I want to see you again every day”. do you feel something Now your heart comes into play? Don’t worry, you can always show your heart. You can literally “wear your heart on your sleeve”, even if it’s not about a permanent relationship! Trust your gut feeling and be open and honest (but please be tactful anyway – relentless openness to some questions is a real relationship killer)!

4) Unrequited praise and recognition

The home-baked cake was fantastically delicious, the chili con carne ravishingly hot, and the wallpapered wall neatly worked right down to the corners? Then tell her that! Verbal recognition, preferably with sparkling eyes and a warm hug, is the best reward there is. But don’t praise with the expectation that the woman will lie at your feet and do any work for you in the future. And also show appreciation for things that aren’t perfect. To be honest, always being perfect is boring in the long run. It’s the little mistakes and quirks that make our counterparts so endearing!

5) Pay full attention

Whenever you interact with women, avoid distractions. A glance at the mobile phone can destroy the best mood in a second. In these moments, be fully attentive! When your best buddy calls, put him on voicemail. Shut down everything that doesn’t belong in the situation. In this context: Again, the language of your eyes is crucial. Presence and attention at the moment are important criteria for a woman’s interest!

Lifestyle

Money Back When Shopping with Cashback

Save money online with Cashback. The principle is great: get money back when shopping on the Internet. So you can save and shopping is much more fun. We explain how it works.

Get money back when shopping

Earn miles or points – you probably know the principle of getting points credited to your customer account for every purchase or booking. And if you have enough together, you can choose more or less great rewards for it. Or you can have this credited to the purchase of another product. Wouldn’t it be great if you were paid money instead of points? This works out. With so-called cashback.

What is Cash Back Shopping?

Cash is credited to the provider account for every purchase made on the Internet. You can then have the amount paid out to your free checking account. Of course, this makes online shopping really fun. The whole thing is called cashback, which means “get money back”. In some cases, you can get back up to 30% of the order amount.

Difference between bonus program and cashback

Cashback campaigns are a one-time purchase incentive to promote sales of certain products. In contrast, the bonus program is applied to every purchase to earn points. If you now combine both, you can really save money.

How does cashback shopping work?

In order to benefit from cashback payments, you need a provider who can show a corresponding number of partner shops and who also has the technical solution ready. And this is how it works:

You register for free on the website of a program provider and create your account.
Confirm the customer account with the confirmation link from the email.
Access the partner shop from the vendor list, then shop as usual.
After purchase, it takes up to 72 hours for the amount to appear in your customer account.
Payments are made from a minimum amount of €5 after approval by the retailer.

Procedure at the cashback provider

How does the money get back after registration? In principle, it is very simple. Because you can shop as usual. You should only make sure that you let the respective cashback portal redirect you to the partner site so that the purchase can be registered. Thus, the online shopping brings nice advantages. Accordingly, proceed as follows:

Select from the provider in partner shops.
Shop in this online shop as usual.
The purchase is recorded and saved as a cashback credit.

Earning opportunities with cashback

Active members earn an average of 20-40 EUR per month. Even higher earnings are possible through bargains and the redemption of vouchers. Because you can choose from hundreds of well-known and well-known online shops where you receive a refund for internet orders that you would have ordered anyway. You can earn even more by referring friends. So this can be a clever way to make money on the internet.

Do I really get money or is there a catch?

You don’t have to expect a catch. Because the operator of the cashback platform gets a commission if he puts you in touch with an internet retailer and you buy something there. Then he shares the commission according to the principle of profit-sharing. Because this is worthwhile for a large number of customers and can therefore be regarded as a serious model. In addition, this is common practice in e-commerce. Consequently, every large Internet retailer either has its own so-called affiliate program or operates an affiliate program through a specialized affiliate service.

What do I have to consider with cashback?

The conditions of the partner shop apply to the cashback. For example, no cashback will be given on purchases that you have returned as a customer. Usually, only one bonus program per purchase is used. However, you can read the respective conditions in advance so that there are no ambiguities here. And from a technical point of view, it only matters that your browser accepts cookies. This is the only way the purchases can be assigned to your account.

Lifestyle

Avoid Toxic Fumes When Tinkering

If you want to craft with the family, you should avoid toxic fumes. These are often contained in special adhesives and can cause damage to health.

Be careful when using special glue

Crafting is a great activity for kids. But when tinkering, you may be working with special glue or plastic glue, which can develop toxic vapors due to their solvents and lead to health problems if inhaled intensively. Therefore, the following always applies: Only use special glue if there is no other option. This is the case, for example, with plastics. It is better to use craft glue that is also suitable for children.

Tips on avoiding toxic fumes

However, if you and your family have to tinker or work with special glue, you should take certain precautions. As a result, you can avoid health problems and the inhalation of toxic fumes. In addition, read how to remove glue and superglue.

1) Ventilate well and avoid toxic fumes

Particular caution with such handicrafts applies to open flames because the special glue is often highly flammable. To avoid burns and keep the glue away from fire. In addition, you should definitely open a window and ventilate well if you want to heat and glue plastics. Good ventilation ensures that the toxic vapors can escape quickly.

2) Crafting outdoors

If you must work with special glue, try doing it outdoors. Thus, the toxic haze in the air can quickly dissipate. Consequently, the risk of inhaling them is minimized and you protect your health. You can also make great ideas for advent calendars.

3) wear masks and avoid toxic fumes

Wearing masks is not a measure against corona, but also an effective way to protect yourself against toxic gases when doing handicrafts and DIY. These ensure that harmful vapors or particles do not enter your body through inhalation. This makes working and handicrafts with special glue safer.

Lifestyle

8 Savings Tips When Shopping in the Supermarket

Saving money when shopping in the supermarket is necessary for many people. For families, groceries are the second largest expense of the month. Consequently, there is great potential for savings here. We have the most important tips for cheap shopping and the best savings tips.

Saving money when shopping also needs to be learned in order to be able to lead a good life with a small wallet. The following savings tips refer to shopping in supermarkets, discounters, drugstores, and other grocery stores. So that you still have money left over for the nicer things in life.

1) Shop according to plan with shopping list and budget

Basically, before you go shopping, you should set a money limit and write a shopping list. Otherwise, food and other things that you don’t need will end up in the basket. You should therefore use the shopping list as a guide or use a shopping list app.

Consequently, before going shopping in the supermarket, it is worth thinking a little longer about what to buy. If you have 1 or 2 deviations when shopping, that’s not bad at all. But going shopping without a plan increases the risk of taking more products with you. Also, note our tips on protecting the environment in the household with other environmentally friendly shopping tips.

2) Go shopping when you’re full

You should also do the shopping list and do the shopping after eating. Because when you’re hungry, you’re weak-willed and receptive to all the appetizers that abound at the grocery store. And then suddenly the delicious frozen pizza, chips, or chocolate end up in the shopping trolley. In addition, this is one of many psychological tricks to lose weight healthier.

3) Cheap shopping with bulk packs

One of many money-saving tips is to buy bulk packs. Because these are actually cheaper and help you to shop cheaply in the supermarket. But be careful when shopping with special offers and double packs. Here you should compare the content with that of the normal packaging. Because it can happen that the quantity in the double packs is reduced so that you don’t have a big saving. You should also consider whether you will use up and need the pack within the shelf life.

4) Use discount campaigns and bonus programs

While it’s a waste of time when you’re frantically chasing coupons and magazine deals, you can shop for cheap if you keep your eyes open along the way. So browse through the catalogs in the mailbox during your morning coffee. The incidental collection of loyalty points can also be converted into cash after a certain amount of time. It really shouldn’t be any more work. Because time is money too. Some selected discount campaigns of various supermarket chains at a glance:

LIDL has heavily discounted items every week.
EDEKA has promotional products throughout Germany every week.
Regular REWE customers can save with loyalty points.

So far some examples of savings tips when shopping. You can find similar programs or apps in almost all supermarket chains that you should use if you regularly go shopping in a certain market. Also, note our ideas for bargain hunting on the Internet.

5) Save money when shopping with weeklies

Another good money-saving tip when shopping is to keep an eye on the weekly offers and special offers. But be careful, not every special offer is cheap! It’s about comparing here. This is especially true for meat and sausage products. If you have found a suitable offer, you can buy the product in larger quantities and freeze it if necessary. Please note our tips and instructions for freezing food.

6) Buy specific promotional items

The savings tips when shopping also includes the targeted purchase of promotional goods. Because when shopping in the supermarket you will always find an area intended for promotional goods. Then these products can only be found there. If you consciously visit this area with every purchase, you will pay less for things that are on your shopping list anyway. Also, note our article on online auctions on the Internet.

7) Look at the bottom of the shelf and shop cheaply

In order to really save money when shopping in the supermarket, you often only have to bend down. This is one of the best money-saving tips when shopping. Because most of the cheap offers are on the lowest shelves. Meanwhile, there are always expensive products at eye level. Because the easygoing person does not like to bend down. And the market researchers know that too. That’s why the products are usually sorted like this. Also, note our tips for shopping on the Internet.

8) Buy fresh instead of ready-made meals

It is often cheaper to cook fresh meals yourself. Accordingly, make a list of all the finished products that you buy regularly and try to replace them with fresh food. However, one can say that exceptions prove the rule here as well. Because a good pasta sauce in a jar with a special price can be cheaper than all the fresh ingredients. But don’t worry, after you’ve been buying fresh groceries for a while, you’ll start to get a feel for the prices. Read our tips on storing food properly and preserving it.

Food

Planting Pole Beans: What You Have to Pay Attention to When Growing and Caring For Them

Planting runner beans is easy. The plants are undemanding and bring good yields. We explain to you what you have to pay attention to when growing.

Planting pole beans – you should know that

If you want to provide yourself with vegetables, runner beans should not be missing in your garden. They are easy to grow and produce good yields over a long period of time. The plants keep forming new pods and you can harvest regularly over a long period of time. Because they mainly grow tall, you can harvest a lot of vegetables from a relatively small area in your garden.

Planting runner beans – These points are important

If you want to grow runner beans, you have to consider several points:
Beans are weak eaters – meaning they only need a small amount of nutrients. Pole beans, however, have slightly higher requirements than other types of beans. Therefore, it makes sense if you prepare the bed with some compost.
Runner beans live up to their name: they need a pole to help them climb. Depending on the variety, they grow 1.5 to 4 meters in height.
A good climbing aid are long bamboo sticks. Plant four equally spaced in the ground and tie the top ends together. If you want to grow more beans, you can set up the poles in two rows using the same principle. Then tie two together at the top and connect them to each other with a crossbar at the top.
Pole beans only germinate above 12 degrees Celsius. Therefore, only plant them when the soil has warmed up and no more frosts are to be expected. From the “Ice Saints” in mid-May you are on the safe side.
The beans need a sunny, warm location if possible.

Prepare the bed for runner beans

Even if runner beans are quite undemanding, you should prepare the bed properly. In this case, this means that you have to loosen the soil well. Now you should set up the climbing aids. Make sure the trellises are long enough for your type of bean. Set up the poles at a distance of 50 to 70 centimeters from each other.

Then place five beans three centimeters deep in the soil at equal intervals around each pole. The warmer it is, the faster they germinate.

Maintain runner beans

Pole beans begin to germinate just a few days after sowing. Once they are about 6 inches tall, cover them with soil. This makes them more stable and forms additional roots. As a rule, the young shoots quickly find their way to the climbing aid. If that doesn’t work, you can easily tie them up with a piece of string.

Runner beans grow incredibly fast. You will be amazed. Once the beans have sprouted and found support on the trellis, your task is limited to regular, thorough watering. Pole beans need a lot of water.

Harvest runner beans

It won’t be long before your runner beans start producing flowers, which eventually become pods. Harvest time is from the end of July. The young beans are particularly tender. When ripening, the individual beans form a hard skin in the pod.

You should always use two hands to harvest beans. With one hand you hold the tendril just above the pod, with the other you pluck off the pod.

IMPORTANT: Raw beans are poisonous! They contain the protein phasin. The substance is only broken down by cooking.

Regular harvesting and thorough watering ensure you high and consistent yields. As the gardening season draws to a close, allow some pods to fully mature. When the husk is brown and dried up in late fall, you can harvest it and have your own seed for next year.

Food

Eating Spinach Raw: When it’s Healthy and When It’s Dangerous

Many people know spinach primarily as a warm, creamy vegetable, but it is also delicious raw in a salad. Here you can find out when you can eat spinach raw and when you should be careful.

In addition to many healthy nutrients, spinach also contains oxalic acid. This binds calcium, iron and magnesium. Your body can therefore absorb less of the substances you eat if you have consumed oxalic acid. If you suffer from a deficiency of the substances mentioned or suffer from kidney stones, you should be careful with raw spinach.

Eat spinach raw to avoid oxalic acid

In particular, long-ripened, strong spinach leaves with a wavy structure contain a lot of oxalic acid. When cooking, some of the acid is released into the cooking water. If you drain the cooking water, the amount of acid will be reduced. However, nutrients also dissolve in the water, which are then also lost.

Young spinach leaves contain less oxalic acid. You can use them raw in salads or in smoothies. So no nutrients are lost. In addition, the consistency of the delicate, smooth leaves is more pleasant than that of the somewhat coarser, long-ripened leaves.

Nitrate in raw spinach

Spinach can be high in nitrates, especially during the darker months. This substance reacts in the body to form nitrite. Nitrite can turn into carcinogenic nitrosamines. In addition, nitrite inhibits oxygen uptake. The intake of nitrite can therefore be life-threatening, especially for children.

Nitrate is primarily contained in the stems and larger leaf veins as well as the outer leaves. When you remove these plant parts, you remove some of the nitrates. You should also eat spinach when it is still very fresh. This not only tastes better, but also ensures that microorganisms have less time to form nitrite.

Be sure to buy organic spinach, as organic farming doesn’t use nitrate fertilizer. Therefore, organic spinach usually contains less nitrate.

Healthy combinations with spinach

Since oxalic acid binds calcium, among other things, it is worth combining spinach with foods containing calcium. How about a delicious yoghurt dressing for the spinach salad? This not only tastes good, but also ensures that you don’t lose too much calcium.

To mitigate the risks of nitrate, for example, add lemon juice to the dressing and drink freshly squeezed orange juice. This is how you absorb vitamin C, which limits the formation of nitrosamines.

Food

Eating Chard Raw: Advantages and When You Shouldn’t Eat it

Can you eat chard raw so as not to destroy the heat-sensitive nutrients? Here’s why raw Swiss chard isn’t the healthiest choice for everyone.

Eating chard raw: these are the advantages

Swiss chard is a particularly nutritious vegetable, but many important nutrients are heat-sensitive. Although the minerals and vitamins are not completely destroyed during cooking or roasting, their proportion is lower than with raw vegetables. This applies to vitamin C, for example.

It is therefore advisable to also include raw food in your diet. The benefits of raw Swiss chard are:
The nutrients are largely retained.
You can prepare or refine delicious salads with chard.
You can use large chard leaves creatively, for example as wraps instead of classic wheat flour wraps.
Raw Swiss chard gives green smoothies an aromatic taste.

Eating chard raw: You should pay attention to this

However, raw chard is only suitable for consumption to a limited extent. In addition to all the health-promoting nutrients, the plant also contains oxalic acid.

Oxalic acid is a naturally occurring fruit acid that is not inherently harmful or toxic.
The body produces them itself and we ingest them daily through many plant-based foods such as rhubarb and spinach.
But too much oxalic acid can also be harmful: it promotes the formation of kidney stones and inhibits the absorption of iron.
In its raw state, Swiss chard contains the most oxalic acid – when it is boiled or roasted, the proportion is reduced. Raw chard should therefore only be eaten in moderation so as not to take in too much oxalic acid. People with kidney disease or iron deficiency should not eat chard raw at all.

It’s a good thing that chard also tastes great when cooked, is healthy and can be used in a variety of ways: leaf chard can be used like spinach, for example, while stem chard is a suitable alternative to asparagus.

Chard: Healthy and aromatic leafy greens

Only recently has chard been found more frequently at the weekly markets and on our plates. For a long time it was overtaken by spinach. Both vegetables can be used in a similar way, but the spinach won out with its milder taste. Botanically speaking, Swiss chard is more closely related to beetroot and sugar beets, but we don’t eat the tubers, but the leaves and stalks. Depending on the characteristics of these parts of the plant, a distinction is made between leaf and stem chard.

Some appreciate the chard because of its strong, slightly tart and aromatic taste, others because it has a considerable repertoire of nutrients. These include, for example:
Vitamins: Swiss chard is a real vitamin bomb and contains vitamins C, E and K, among other things. 100 grams of Swiss chard contain 39 milligrams of vitamin C, which is one of the antioxidants and is essential for protecting cells from free radicals.
Iron: Green leafy vegetables are the most important plant source of iron and sometimes even beat meat in terms of iron content. Swiss chard, for example, has 2.7 milligrams of iron per 100 grams, while the iron content of meat is 1 to 2.5 milligrams of iron per 100 grams. Iron is responsible for oxygen transport and energy metabolism in the body. The trace element ensures that we remain efficient and active.
Beta carotene: is a secondary plant substance from the carotenoid family and a precursor of vitamin A. Beta carotene takes on important functions in cell metabolism and cell protection and we need it for healthy skin, eyes and hair.
Chlorophyll: the plant pigment allows plants to photosynthesize and helps us stay healthy. Because the leafy green helps with oxygen transport, the formation of new blood cells and the purification of the blood.

Food

Vitamin C: What it Does, When It’s Missing, Where It’s in

The water-soluble vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is known to everyone and experiences a revival every year when the weather is bad. But why vitamin C at all? “It helps against a cold,” is the popular opinion. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Vitamin C strengthens the immune system. However, it has not been scientifically proven that it really has a preventive or healing effect on colds. And if the cold is already there, it comes, stays and goes (as a rule of thumb) for three days each – with or without the administration of ascorbic acid.

Vitamin C: effect

However, vitamin C not only helps the immune system, it can do much more:
As a radical scavenger and antioxidant, it protects cells from premature aging processes
necessary for the formation of collagen (component of connective tissue, teeth, skin, hair and nails)
important for cholesterol metabolism
important for fat metabolism
important for optimal absorption of iron
can increase sperm count
inhibits the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines during digestion
it helps in the formation of messenger substances and hormones

Vitamin C: deficiency

We humans cannot produce ascorbic acid ourselves and therefore have to get it from food. If our body doesn’t get enough of it, it can even lead to a disease: This is how scurvy occurs due to a vitamin C deficiency. Scurvy used to be the leading cause of death among seafarers who lacked access to fresh food at sea. Even today, scurvy still occurs wherever people eat too little C-containing food. If infants are affected, the disease is called “Möller-Barlow syndrome”, but the cause is the same.

Vitamin C deficiency manifests itself as follows:
bleeding gums
susceptibility to infection
poor wound healing
Joint and bone pain due to bleeding under the periosteum
Bleeding of the skin and mucous membranes, organs, muscles
tooth loss
Fatigue, dizziness and exhaustion
muscular dystrophy
joint inflammation
severe diarrhea
cardiac insufficiency
depressions
However, these symptoms can also have other causes.

Vitamin C: overdose

If you take too much vitamin C, you will get digestive problems such as diarrhea from about three to four grams per day. However, such a high intake can only occur through incorrect dosing of food supplements and cannot be achieved with natural foods. To clarify the amount: a heaped teaspoon of powder corresponds to about one gram.

People who are prone to kidney stones or have damaged kidneys should be particularly careful not to overdo it with ascorbic acid-containing remedies. After all, even a dose of one gram per day can lead to side effects.

Vitamin C: the daily requirement

The German Society for Nutrition (DGE) revised the reference values in 2015, so that other information can be found in older literature. The DGE differentiates between the requirements for men and women, since the daily requirement also depends on body weight. According to the new guidelines, women should take in 95 mg and men 110 mg of vitamin C with food per day. The requirement increases to 105 mg for pregnant women and 125 mg of vitamin C per day for breastfeeding women. Smokers and also passive smokers have a significantly higher daily requirement of 135 mg (women) or 155 mg (men) per day.

Vitamin C: in which foods?

When it comes to vitamin C, everyone immediately thinks of citrus fruits. But even before lemons, oranges and tangerines ended up in our fruit basket, it was possible to have enough of them all year round. There are many locally grown fruits and vegetables that we can use to meet our daily needs.

The star among the local vitamin C bombs is the sea buckthorn. It originally comes from Central Asia, such as Mongolia. To this day, he ensures that people in barren, hostile regions are always well supplied with it. With 450 mg of vitamin C per 100 g, sea buckthorn is a local superfood that is only surpassed by the almost twice as high C content (1250 mg/100 g) of fresh rose hips and makes acerola superfluous.

Citrus fruits come a long way behind with only around 50 mg/100 g. Far better performers: blackcurrants (189 mg/100 g), peppers (139 mg/100 g), kale and Brussels sprouts (105-110 mg/100 g) or strawberries (63 mg/100 mg).

Unfortunately, much of the vitamin content of food is lost during preparation and storage. So make sure you buy food as fresh as possible – preferably directly from the producer – only store it for a short time and wash it undivided. Only cut fruit and vegetables just before eating to get the largest possible portion. Because ascorbic acid is heat sensitive, make sure you keep cooking times as short as possible.

By the way: It is also added to food as a preservative under the E numbers E300 to E304, E315 and E316. Manufacturers use this to protect, for example, apple juice from oxidation and browning; Cooked sausages can be made appetizingly reddish with it. It is also sometimes added to flour to improve its baking properties.