image taken from https://www.flickr.com/photos/84744710@N06/8399032152Vitamin C is one of the oldest vitamins available in supplement form, it has been studied for so long! For me it was one of the first vitamins I supplemented it when I was young as my dad would give me some to fight off colds and other sicknesses. Over time I researched more on it to see if I should keep taking it and overall vitamin C is one of the best things to supplement since it has no “realistic” overdose chances (in fact, huge quantities injected in the blood have been shown to fight cancer!) and gives you a lot of health benefits!
The Most Notable Vitamin C Benefits for Your Body
– Major antioxidant. It’s very useful in manufacturing Glutathione, the bodies primary antioxidant. It’s also why when I drink alcohol I take some vitamin C supplements (1-2g) before hand, usually alongside N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) since they both work very well together to protect me from alcohol’s toxicity and prevent almost all potential hangovers for me.
– Skin health. Vitamin C has been shown to help with skin health and less skin wrinkling. Most likely due to it’s antioxidant properties & how it helps your body build collagen.
– Wound/Injury healing. Alongside better looking skin, vitamin C can actually help in wound healing in terms of speed and improvement in the scar tissue.
– Prevent deadly vitamin C deficiency symptoms such as Scurvy & general bad skin symptoms. It’s interesting to point out that even at the current low RDAs, various studies in the U.S. and Canada have found that about a quarter to a third of people are marginally deficient in vitamin C and up to 20% in some populations are severely deficient, wrote Frei and his co-workers in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition.
– High doses of vitamin C can potentially fight cancer, this has to be injected intravenously because your body can only convert a limited amount of vitamin C from supplements/food to transferring it to your bloodstream but for some cancer patients, this has saved their life as shown int he video below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izZOyDFU6cs
The Main Sources of Vitamin C in Foods
Almost all fruits & vegetables are good sources of vitamin C. It’s important to remember that storage and cooking depletes the vitamin C contained in these. Some of my favorite sources of vitamin C include, dark leafy greens such as spinach and kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, citrus fruits (like the ever popular orange), strawberries & Kiwis. Fresh herbs that are commonly used for flavor such as cilantro, chives, thyme, and basil are also high in vitamin C.
Vitamin C Overdose & Vitamin C Supplement Dosage
Clinical studies show that extremely high doses, even as high as 120g, are relatively harmless for the body. So when you consider that the RDA is under 200mg to simply prevent scurvy (a disease associated with very low levels of vitamin C) it’s not a bad idea to supplement with 500mg to 1g a day to actually gain the benefits of vitamin C and not just take the minimum to prevent a deadly disease as the RDA suggests. It’s hard to judge exactly how much vitamin C you get from your diet because cooking & storage tend to deplete vitamin C in what you eat. An interesting side note is that vegetables stored near the sun’s rays (such as the window) usually tend to keep more vitamin C (and possibly other nutrients).
It’s best to take time released, if only to spread a bit the vitamin C absorption rate in your body. I personally take Now Foods, C-1000. I often cut the tablet in two and take a 500mg dosage spread between my meals.
Excellent article. I just found your site and I love it. I am skeptical of supplementing with anything, but Chris Kresser has also talked about how vitamin C supplementation is a no brainer given the incredibly high levels you have to take to have negative side effects. I may have to start supplementing.
I used to be very skeptical as well but certain things such as magnesium (because our water is heavily depleted in it nowadays) and vitamin C (because our vegetables are not always very fresh by the time we eat them) make sense. I also supplement heavily in vitamin D when I’ve been a few days not in the sun and krill oil when I have not been able to eat salmon for a few days. The rest, I can get from food.
I always keep my oranges in the fridge because I love the taste of a juicy, cold orange but I never knew they have less vitamin C compared to keeping them on my window sill in the kitchen. Considering how many fruits and vegetables have vitamin C, I think I reach my daily limit easily but I still supplement because I know there are no side effects, just like you pointed out.
Yup good thinking with vitamin C… I think more is better, because so hard to predict how much you are getting (unless fresh from your own farm) and no downside really ..
Not a single day passes without eating spinach or kale, either cooked or in salads. I always loved the taste, even as a child, I loved eating my veggies and leaving my plate spotless. Peppers, tomatoes and even watermelon are high in vitamin c; however, my absolute favorite source are grapefruits, they’re the perfect fruit – almost sugarless and super healthy.