The Long and Short of Vitamin C

Vitamin C... NOT Sea

Oh Vitamin C, how many puns have people made about you in their Instagram feeds? I honestly feel like it's a vitamin that is really misunderstood by most people in today's world. Yes, oranges have it, and yes, it helps your immune system. But it really is much, much deeper than that.

First off, I just want to say that I will be referencing a lot of information from the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements [1] in this post (talk about a mouthful). Yes, you can go and read it if you want, but it'll probably take you an hour to get through the whole thing- so I'll do you a favor and keep it short and sweet (get it? Fruit? Sigh.). So here's the scoop.

Vitamin C is a vitamin that plays a host of roles in the body, from helping with protein metabolism to helping form collagen (collagen is a part of connective tissue in your body, and helps with stuff like healing wounds or cuts). It also has antioxidant properties, which helps to prevent certain diseases, cancers, etc. which are involved with oxidative stress. [2,3,4,5]

But you're probably wondering, what the heck is oxidative stress? Well, think of it like this- oxidative stress is caused when there is an imbalance of two things in the body- those two things being free radicals and antioxidants. Essentially, antioxidants like Vitamin C help to level this out and keep the body from undergoing too much oxidative stress.

There are lots of other really nice benefits of Vitamin C beyond that, but they're much too technical for me to talk about here- and besides, I think you get the gist of it- Vitamin C is a lot more complex than just the stuff that's in fruit and that you take when sick.

Of all the stuff that I found while researching, the most interesting to me was the recommended dietary allowances [6] as well as the upper levels of intake [6] for Vitamin C. For a male aged 19 and up, the RDA is 90 mg/day, and for a female aged 19 and up the RDA is 75 mg/day (quick side note- this number is 35mg/day higher for individuals who smoke! this is just testament to the many negative effects of smoking on the body). And to put these figures into a more tangible perspective, 3/4 of a cup of orange juice contains 93mg of Vitamin C [7]. That being said, it doesn't take much for one to meet the RDA- just so long as he or she has a balanced and healthy diet that includes fruit like oranges, apples, kiwis, etc. 

In regards to the UL's for Vitamin C (the levels one should ideally not exceed for optimal health), the UL for both men and women aged 19 and up is 2000mg/day. In a normal diet that doesn't include some form of Vitamin C supplementation, this is nothing to even be remotely concerned about. However, it is something that comes into play if one is to take a Vitamin C supplement when sick like Airborne, which contains around 1,000 mg of Vitamin C per serving. In my investigation into this product(which I do use myself when I feel under the weather), I was very pleased to find that they recommend no more than two servings of the supplement per day- this keeps it around the UL. I always am happy when I find that a supplement abides by healthy rules like this.

So yes, it is OK to have more Vitamin C than the RDA. I just would't recommend exceeding the UL on a regular basis, as it could cause possible side effects like abdominal cramps and various gastrointestinal disturbances [5] due to the unabsorbed Vitamin C in the GI tract that comes from exceeding the UL. I personally take a multivitamin that has 90mg of Vitamin C and am very content with it. Like I said before, if you have a balanced diet and a healthy body, there is no need to take amounts of Vitamin C anywhere near the UL. Just because you can does not mean you should, smarty pants.

Have any questions? Comments? Drop them below! I'd love to hear from you and interact. 

JD3 out.

#RocketFuel #keepUP

(sources below!)

Sources:

1. https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminC-HealthProfessional/

2. Li Y, Schellhorn HE. New developments and novel therapeutic perspectives for vitamin C. J Nutr 2007;137:2171-84. [PubMed abstract]

3. Carr AC, Frei B. Toward a new recommended dietary allowance for vitamin C based on antioxidant and health effects in humans. Am J Clin Nutr 1999;69:1086-107. [PubMed abstract]

4. Frei B, England L, Ames BN. Ascorbate is an outstanding antioxidant in human blood plasma. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 1989;86:6377-81. [PubMed abstract]

5. Jacob RA, Sotoudeh G. Vitamin C function and status in chronic disease. Nutr Clin Care 2002;5:66-74. [PubMed abstract]

6. Institute of Medicine. Food and Nutrition Board. Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Selenium, and Carotenoids. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2000.

7. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2011. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 24. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page, http://www.ars.usda.gov/ba/bhnrc/ndl.