Homemade Vitamin C Gummies For Your Children's RDA

One of the most important vitamins you can ensure your children are getting (on a daily basis) is of course vitamin C. There are many fruits and veggies that contain vitamin C in abundance and these should be included their diet as much as possible. Animals manufacture vitamin C but unfortunately humans including children do not. Apparently, they lost this ability during the course of evolution. This is the reason why, in the past, cats survived voyages to the New World while sailors died of scurvy.

Foods rich in vitamin C

• Vegetables such as green peppers, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, turnip greens and other leafy greens, winter squash, red peppers, tomatoes, sweet and white potatoes. Another way is to juice green veggies.

• Fruits high in vitamin C include citrus fruits, strawberries, papayas, mangos, watermelons, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, pineapples and cantaloupes.

There are many extra health benefits in taking a higher dosage of vitamin C (along with foods that are rich in the vitamin) each and every day. Chewables are the easy way for children to take their supplement but just watch out for, and avoid, artificial colors and sweeteners as well as any sugar additives. A great alternative is to make your own natural real food vitamin C “Gummies” for your children to enjoy...

You will need these ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups cold orange juice (preferably freshly squeezed). Avoid cartons of store bought fruit juice

• 7 tablespoons grass-fed gelatin powder

• 4 tablespoons honey

• ½ cup vitamin C powder – look out for quality, organic vitamin C powder made from whole fruits

• 1/4 teaspoon organic orange extract or pure lemon juice

• 1/8 teaspoon vanilla

• Pinch real sea salt

• Optional extra: Orange zest – 1 large tablespoons of finely grated orange zest from a fresh organic navel orange.

Directions on how to make your homemade vitamin C gummies

(courtesy of www.ButterBeliever.com)

• Pour the juice into a small saucepan.

• Sprinkle the gelatin powder on top.

• Encourage your children to watch as you let the gelatin “bloom”. As the gelatin powder absorbs the liquid, it will cause the juice to swell up into a shape resembling a weird and wrinkled brain-like substance. Let it continue for a couple of minutes. If the juice hasn’t totally absorbed the gelatin, and you see white powder floating on top, stir it in until it is no longer visible.

• Then heat the mixture at a low temperature and let it liquefy.

• As the juice gets warm and steamy, stir in the honey and remaining ingredients.

• Once the mixture is totally liquid (not thick and pudding-like), it’s ready to be poured into your molds.

• You can use silicone candy molds (making the gummies easy to remove) or pour into a square glass dish or baking pan to cut into squares later.

• Leave in the refrigerator for 30 minutes until completely set. Your homemade gummies can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

How much vitamin C supplementation is optimum?

Most experts agree that you can take large amounts of vitamin C – the suggested dose for adults is to supplement with 1,000 mg - 2,000 mg a day in two separate doses with 500 mg for children. This is a safe dose. It is good to know that if it was too much, you would experience some diarrhea or other stomach upset and could then simply cut back on the dose. It is also important to remember that vitamin C is not stored in the body so toxicity is highly unlikely. If you want to take your vitamin C in the form of juice, then make your own fresh fruit juice such as orange or grapefruit from real whole fruit (preferably organic). Even if you are eating all those vitamin C enriched fruit and veggies, you will probably still need to supplement because in many cases there are less nutrients in the soil today - as well as other contributing factors. If you’re trying to cure a cold or prevent illness from coming on, extra doses of vitamin C are the way to go, helping your body maintain healthy tissues and giving your immune system a real boost.