Vitamin C is made by plants and animals using special tools inside their bodies.
Like a Factory Line
Imagine you're making juice from oranges. The orange has sugar and acid, but to make Vitamin C, it needs some extra help. Inside the cells of plants and animals, there's a kind of factory line where they take simple ingredients and turn them into Vitamin C.
The Workers in the Factory
The workers in this factory are special enzymes, like helpers that speed up the process. One worker is called L-gulonolactone oxidase, but you can just think of it as a helper who turns one piece into another, step by step, until finally, Vitamin C is made.
Animals like humans have this factory too, but some animals, like guinea pigs and bats, don’t have the full set of helpers, so they need to get Vitamin C from food. It’s kind of like how you might need a recipe book if you’re not sure how to make your favorite cake!
Examples
- A child eats an orange and gets vitamin C, which helps their body make collagen.
- Your body turns glucose into vitamin C through a series of steps.
- Animals like guinea pigs need to eat vitamin C too because they can't make it.
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See also
- Are humans the only species who drink milk as adults?
- Are male and female brains physically different from birth?
- Are all emerging viral diseases of the past 100 years zoonoses?
- A new species of small bird?
- Are humans more adapted to "light mode" or "dark mode"?