Vitamin C deficiency is dangerously high among elderly Indians, according to a new study conducted in the nation’s rural and small towns. Seventy four per cent of aged people in north India and 46 per cent in south India were found to be deficient of the essential nutrient.
The study conducted by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and AIIMS, Delhi, found that the deficiency was common in men, varied by seasons like intake of fruit and vegetable going down in the monsoons. In their findings, the authors point out poor diet and exposure to smoke in poor communities as major causes.
Our bodies cannot produce vitamin C on its own (just like most other vitamins, except vitamin D. Therefore, it must be ingested as part of the diet or supplements.
“Most studies show that high levels of vitamin C deficiency in older people. They are usually expected to be the vulnerable group,” Prof. Astrid Fletcher of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said, adding that the problem of not eating well in old age is compounded in the low-income group, which often leads to problems like cataracts.
“In an earlier study, we have shown a very strong association between cataracts and the vitamin C deficiency in the Indian population,” she said.
Apparently, the Indian way of life does not allow sufficient vitamin C to stack up. It is lost when heated and processed. This way most Indian dishes are ruled out as sources of vitamin c. “Loss of vitamin C occurs with heating and, therefore, dietary vitamin C in our study and in other studies in India is probably overestimated by at least 25 per cent since the most common method of food preparation among the Indian population is cooking by heat, ” the paper published in Plos One reads.
Primarily, vitamin C is required to help make collagen, strengthen immunity and fight allergies. But when the body is forced to spend most of its vitamin C stock on fighting oxidative stress brought on by smoke, not much is left for the principle purposes, leaving the body malnutritioned.
Seventy per cent of adults in India either smoke (mostly in the north) or chew (more common in the south) tobacco. Most families in the rural population still use cooking fires, the fumes of which cause oxidative stress, that is neutralised by further depleting stock of vitamin C. These levels are markedly higher than those seen in low-income groups in other countries.