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Vitamin C is an impressive vitamin that has been scientifically proven to reduce your risk of a number of diseases. It is also an essential vitamin – meaning your body cannot produce it. To get Vitamin C, you can eat foods with it, or take essential vitamins.
If you think oranges are the absolute best source of Vitamin C, think again. Although they are a great source of it, there are many foods that contain more Vitamin C than oranges.
For adults, the recommended daily amount of vitamin C is 65 to 90 milligrams per day. Surprisingly, it is possible to get too much vitamin C (an excess of 2,000 mg) – causing adverse effects such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, heartburn, and more.
Vitamin C is still more helpful than not, and it helps your body absorb another important nutrient – iron. To ensure you get enough of the essential vitamin, you can eat these foods which are all higher in vitamin C than oranges.
For me personally, I like to eat my nutrients instead of swallowing a pill. I’m also not a big fan of oranges. A medium-sized orange has 69.7 mg of vitamin C – just over the lower end of the recommended daily amount for adults.
Surprisingly, this is less vitamin C than you’ll get in just a half-cup of chopped red chili peppers (107.8 mg) and less than many other foods. Since most people couldn’t eat a 1/2 cup of red chili peppers or season their food with that much, we’ll stick to the foods you can.
Red peppers pack nearly three times the amount of vitamin C than an orange. For just one cup of red bell peppers, you’ll get 190 mg. They are also an excellent source of vitamin A and extremely versatile as they can be used in recipes or just eaten plain.
Green bell peppers contain a little less, but still, give you 200% of the recommended daily dose with 190 mg of vitamin C. Kale is another great source of vitamin C with just a little over 80 mg in each cup. For a low-calorie, fiber-packed source of Vitamin C, one serving of broccoli has 132 mg. It also has only 30 calories per serving and loads of fiber.
For fruit lovers, you’ll get a higher dose of vitamin C in papaya, strawberries, kiwi, mangoes, and pineapple. Mangoes have 122.3 mg of vitamin C and just one serving (2 fruits) of kiwi has more than 130 mg.
A cup of fresh pineapples has 78.9 mg or you can eat a cup of strawberries for 84.7 mg. One cup of papaya also has over 80 mg with 88.3 mg of vitamin C. All of these fruits and vegetables contain more vitamin C than oranges making is super simple to get the recommended amount of this essential vitamin every day.
