The vitamins Vegetables and fruits are especially rich in the B vitamins, and in vitamin C. Vitamin C is only found in fruits and vegetables, and not other foods, unless the foods are fortified with the vitamin. We are going to focus our attention on vitamin C and folate. Before we knew about vitamins, and how to make them artificially in a pill form, a person could not survive without fresh fruits and vegetables. Without these foods, people developed scurvy, a condition in which a person bruises and bleeds easily, and the skin becomes very brittle.
Gums bleed and teath fall out.
Bones become very painful because there is bleeding between the bone itself and the membrane covering the bone, called the periosteum. Folate, one of the B vitamins While there are many food sources of folate, some of the most important sources are dark green leafy vegetables such as spinach. Studies here at Cornell and elsewhere are showing that people differ tremendously in the amount of folate they need to stay in the best health, and to have healthy children. If people with these genes do not eat enough folate, they may run into two problems. This is a condition in which the neural tissue, which becomes the babies brain, spinal cord and spine, does not fold over into its normal tube-like shape as the embryo is developing in the womb.