A vitamin C with rose hips supplement can be ideal for people looking to ensure that they consume the recommended amount of this essential vitamin.
Vitamin C is an important nutrient and is necessary for the body to maintain good health. Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin and this means that it needs to be taken everyday as the body cannot store vitamin C. As a result of this, many people turn to vitamin C supplements to ensure that they take the required amount everyday. There are many forms of vitamin C supplements available. One supplement that is gaining in popularity is vitamin C with rose hips supplement.
Rose Hips and Vitamin C
Rose hips contain high amounts of vitamin C and have long been used as a natural source of the vitamin. Traditionally, rose hips have been collected and turned into rose hip syrup, jelly or jam. During the second world war, rose hips were an essential source of vitamin C, as countries such as Great Britain had limited supplies of citrus fruit.
Rose hips are the fruit of roses. When the flower has died away, a bright red fruit develops. This deepens as the rose hip ripens until it is a deep red shade. While rose hips have been traditionally used as a source of vitamin C, not all modern varieties of rose plants produce rose hips that are a reliable source of vitamin C. Some plants, such as roses that have been cultivated for ornamental rose hips, may actually contain limited amounts of usable vitamin C. Rose hips are a reliable source of vitamin C.
About Vitamin C with Rose Hips Supplement
Supplements that contain vitamin C have been specially formulated to give the recommended daily amount of vitamin C. The inclusion of rose hips as a supply of vitamin C will be attractive to people who are looking to obtain vitamin C from natural sources. However this does not affect the effectiveness or the performance of the supplement. What a supplement does provide, however, is a controlled dosage of vitamin C and this helps to avoid the danger of consuming too much vitamin C.
Why Take Vitamin C Supplements?
One of the key reasons that people take vitamin C supplements is to help support the body's immune system by ensuring that adequate supplies are taken daily without relying on obtaining the required amount through a diet. While it is possible to obtain the recommended daily amount of vitamin C through a well balanced diet, many people like the reassurance of taking controlled supplements. This is particularly useful during the winter and cold weather, when vitamin C can be an important way to help to prevent colds. It is important to remember, when taking any form of nutritional supplement, that consuming too much of a nutrient can sometimes be as harmful as not having enough, therefore specialist advice should be sought if there are any concerns.
Using Rose Hips
While supplements are an easy and convenient way to take rose hips as a source of vitamin C, it is also possible to prepare rose hips at home. This can be a very natural way to obtain vitamin C, particularly if the rose hips have been grown organically. It is important to ensure rose hips come from a suitable rose plant. There are many recipes available for rose hip syrup and other products. Interesting recipes include:
- BBC - original recipe provided by the Ministry of Defence during World War II showing housewives how to make rose hip syrup
- Guardian - a recipe plus ideas for using rose hip syrup
- Jeremy Taylor - an illustrated step by step guide
Rose hips can be an interesting way to take vitamin C whether they are consumed as a homemade syrup or jelly or taken as a supplement.
