VITAMIN C: zucchini

What is Vitamin C?
Why is it important?

Have you thought of the flu vaccine and more Vitamin C in the same thought or sentence? Do you get enough Vitamin C?

When I think of Vitamin C, I think of oranges!
Why?

Because I grew up with orange juice and it seemed all around me, so orange juice is synonymous with vitamin C. The other strong message was that vitamin c was important to stave off the flu bug or sickness. If orange juice was the beacon of vitamin C, then as a child, I got plenty. But as I became a teenager and was focused on sugar and weight, I drank less and less and I am not really sure that I replaced vitamin C with another food option, or in this case, another drink option.

At times, if I remembered, I would take a Vitamin C vitamin but my taking of those ebbed and flowed with the latest weight loss trend. My focus, since I was 13, was weight loss not the nutrients or vitamins my body needed to stay healthy. My lack of knowledge, because let’s face it, we are not taught about the importance of food and bodies, changed in 2013.

That year, I started a journey that I enjoy daily because there is nothing more rewarding, in both taste and health, than food …. yummy, delicious, savory, mouth-watering food.

Sounds a little corny, but if you take this journey with us, you will find that food is the start to a healthy, happy and fun life. It won’t cure everything, but you’d be surprised at how if you eat healthy, real food, your aches, pains, allergies, headaches, muscle aches, and …. will be a little less bothersome and you’ll find you have less brain fog throughout the day and more sustaining energy that does not come from the sugary drinks or powders added to water.

Organic is way much better than conventional because many of the nutrients our bodies need come from good soil, but conventional food has pretty much depleted the soil’s health through repeated use of monocrops, pesticides and other chemicals.

I know, I know, just a lot of buzz words but to share all I have learned will take more than this post so I hope you will keep joining us each week and will also try the recipes shared in our episodes of Cooking with Grams.

I am not going to overwhelm with facts today but I do want to challenge you to think about Vitamin C and then to look at what you eat to see if any of it contains Vitamin C.

I also want to challenge you to try a recipe (one of ours or your grandmother’s favorite) and then share how you liked it? How you might have tweaked the recipe? Even share your random thoughts or questions. Let me know if, you too, think of Vitamin C and orange juice? Or if Vitamin C makes you think of something else! It is important to us to hear from you because there is so much we can learn from each other.

Fun facts about Zucchini and Vitamin C:

Zucchini is an October seasonal DC food.

Zucchinis were first brought to the United States in the 1920s by the Italians.

April 25th is National Zucchini Bread Day.

The flower of the zucchini plant is edible.
https://mobile-cuisine.com/did-you-know/zucchini-fun-facts/.

Zucchini is a good source of potassium. (think banana)
https://www.health.com/food/6-things-you-should-know-about-zucchini.

Plecos (Plecostomus) love Zucchini. They are a bottom-feeder fish found in many individual aquariums.

If you enjoy fried food, this may be of interest:
https://foursquare.com/top-places/washington-dc/best-places-fried-zucchini.

Vitamin C plays an important role in our growth and tissue repair. It is essential for life and in healing wounds and maintaining the integrity of gums, bones, and teeth. http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/hpcd/chp/cdrr/nutrition/facts/vitaminc.html

There are mammals that make their own Vitamin C but humans are not one of them. https://www.nowtolove.co.nz/health/diet-nutrition/15-fascinating-facts-about-vitamin-c-34011.

Vitamin C is a natural antihistamine. http://brighterdayfoods.com/promog/FeaturedArticle.asp?id=497&StoreID=AD4DB884427948DBA7A06D81F925991B

Wow – who knew – many of the above facts I just learned as I researched for this article, others I knew and there are many others to still learn. The pleco I learned about because I got one for my brother’s aquarium and wanted to make sure it had what it needed to grow.

Something else I thought you might find interesting because until reading this I hadn’t heard of the idea/concept of culinary anthropology but it peaked my interest and so did this article. There is so much we can learn from our indigenous brothers and sisters. Happy reading: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/people-and-culture/food/the-plate/2016/11/native-american-cuisine-returns-to-its-roots/.

Who knew food could be such an exciting area to explore!? – it touches on many different disciplines, schools of thought and delectable ways to prepare it.

Until next Monday, enjoy your week and I welcome any ideas, thoughts, questions, and/or comments you might have about this topic or something else food, vitamin, minerals, weight loss, recipe related. I would love to hear from you because I know you have many interesting things to share that are equally as interesting as the information I find when researching!

By
Elizabeth Fischer

Sidenote: 

I got the Pleco for my brother in early 2014. Since then, and through my own journey of enlightenment, I have come to question whether fish tanks/aquariums are fair to the fish. Personally, I no longer support having fish stuck in tanks/aquariums because they seem cruel – very little space for the fishes to explore and be challenged and most fail to honor the local environments the fish normally live. The Pleco is full grown and it just seems wrong to have him in a small space. As I look for a new home, one where the Pleco can swim and hide with lots of space, one where he won’t be killed (because many do not keep Plecos after they grow), I make sure Sam (that is the Pleco’s name) gets the nutrients he needs to stay healthy. It is a personal choice but one I share as #Food4Thought.