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Did you know that ascorbic acid is actually synthetic vitamin C? What’s more, it is usually GMO vitamin C, which means it was derived from GMO corn.
If you are learning this for the first time, it can be a rather shocking realization as almost all vitamin C supplements on the market use isolated ascorbic acid separated from a whole food source. The manufacturing process that produces synthetically derived vitamin C leaves all the beneficial co-factors behind!
Even more disturbing, ascorbic acid is frequently marketed as natural vitamin C and added to organic foods as a natural preservative. Truly natural forms of vitamin C and synthetic ascorbic acid seem to be used interchangeably.
How confusing for the consumer!
Nearly all juices and fruit products are loaded up with ascorbic acid, even many organic, healthfood store versions. It seems that if a product is labeled “high in Vitamin C”, consumers buy more of it.
A lot of folks are being fooled by these misleading semantics. There is a growing body of evidence that those consuming high doses of ascorbic acid should have reason to worry.
Three Studies Suggest Caution with High Dose Ascorbic Acid
The journal Wise Traditions cites three studies that give pause about large doses of vitamin C. The first, from the Jun 15, 2001 issue of Science, showed that “synthetic vitamin C may contribute to the formation of genotoxins that can lead to cancer”.
A second study presented to the American Heart Association showed a link between consumption of only 500 mg of vitamin C per day and a greater propensity toward thickening of the arteries (Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2000).
More recently, athletes taking 1000 mg of isolated ascorbic acid per day showed reduced endurance capacity from interference with antioxidant enzymes (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jan 2008).
This information should give pause to anyone who is actively taking synthetic vitamin C supplements such as those Emergen-C packets that are available everywhere, from pharmacies and health food stores to even gas stations!
Supplements like these are NOT boosting immunity and are NOT good for you!
Synthetic vitamins such as ascorbic acid act more like drugs in the body rather than whole food nutrients with all the available co-factors. Taking any synthetic vitamin can cause imbalances in the body and should be avoided.
Another worrisome and popular trend is the recommendation of some alternative health professionals to do a “vitamin C flush” during illness. This therapy (if you can call it that) calls for large doses of ascorbic acid until the onset of diarrhea.
This approach to regaining wellness has never made any sense to me. Now, with more studies indicating the danger of high doses of vitamin C, caution seems well-founded.
Fan of Linus Pauling? Consider This…
If you are a fan of Linus Pauling who popularized the notion of huge doses of Vitamin C for the common cold in the 1970s, consider this. GMO Vitamin C did not exist when Pauling was conducting his studies. GMO derived Vitamin C is what most people are unwittingly taking today!
What’s more, the studies indicating the danger of high doses of vitamin C over long periods of time had not been done yet. They were conducted long after Pauling died in 1994.
What about High Dose, Intravenous Ascorbic Acid?
What about high dose, intravenous ascorbic acid for the very ill? Note that vitamin C for IV use is almost always derived from GMO corn as well as being extremely high dose and synthetic ascorbic acid only.
Under certain circumstances and for the very ill, high dose GMO ascorbic acid therapy can be beneficial. For example, my husband used IV ascorbic acid therapy immediately after each amalgam removal. This prevented any released mercury from getting stored in the tissues. Not doing this risks the development of autoimmune disease.
However, synthetic vitamin C especially when genetically modified shouldn’t be a regular feature in anyone’s diet or supplement regimen.
Whole Food Vitamin C is Naturally Low Dose
The best way to get vitamin C on a daily basis is from whole foods sources. This will provide you this critical nutrient at a low dosage that will do no harm over the long term.
When you get the whole foods version of vitamin C, you don’t need much at all. A truly natural vitamin C supplement with no isolated ascorbic acid is naturally low-dose and yet highly effective.
Don’t forget about the benefits of fresh grassfed milk – a great source of vitamin C. The vitamin C in milk is mostly destroyed by pasteurization, along with many other nutrients. This is why buying fresh and local is so important.
Fresh and lacto-fermented fruits and vegetables (such as traditional sauerkraut) are other excellent sources of the whole vitamin C complex.
Perhaps folks feel the need to take large doses of synthetic vitamin C because all the processed foods they are eating are so devoid of the nutrient in its whole form. Switching to whole foods and dumping those vitamin C supplements in the trash would be a much better approach to boosting immunity!
Ascorbic Acid is Usually from Genetically Modified Corn
What’s worse is that ascorbic acid is not just synthetic. Remember that it is also usually derived from genetically modified corn! More on that GMO vitamin C travesty fooling millions of consumers every single day in the linked article.
Another vitamin scam harming consumers concerns synthetic folate commercially known as folic acid.
The pushing of beta carotene as true vitamin A by food manufacturers and supplement companies is another nutritional falsehood scamming millions of consumers and worse, seriously harming their health.
What to Look for in a True Vitamin C Product
To give you some idea of what to look for in a vitamin C supplement, here are the ingredients of the one I use. Notice that there is no isolated ascorbic acid or other ascorbates and no additives. Just pure food Vitamin C sources. Please note that this is not the only Vitamin C supplement that qualifies as totally pure. There are a few others.
Pure Radiance C ingredients: camu camu berry extract, manioc root, acerola berry extract, amla berry extract, buckwheat sprouts, freeze-dried berry blend, blueberry, raspberry, cranberry, cherry, rose hips fruit, lemon peel, black pepper berry extract.
I also use the Amla C Plus. Here are the ingredients: Organic Amla berry, organic spirulina.
Notice that the words “ascorbic acid” are not listed in either of these products!
Want to know where to find a complete line of whole food Vitamin C supplements from a variety of whole food plant sources?
Click here for several carefully vetted brands to choose from.
Ascorbic acid, aka Vitamin C, is a simple chemical compound, C6H8O6. Refer to Wikipedia or any other reputable source. There is no such thing as “GMO ascorbic acid” any more than there is GMO H2O. Ascorbic acid is the same compound however it is produced.
If you dispute this please describe a chemical test that can distinguish “GMO” and “natural” ascorbic acid.
If you wish t
I disagree greatly with this article. I have recently done a lot of research on high dose vitamin c and have watched interview after interview of medical professionals speak on the importance and effectiveness of high does vitamin c. Most of the studies are in fact performed using ascorbic acid and non-gmo forms are readily available. Dr. Thomas Levy has written some great books on Vitamin c that I highly recommend.
Yes! Dr. Levy and Dr. Andrew Saul of the Orthomolecular Society also promote ascorbic acid use to bowel tolerance during illness. Both Health Ranger Store and others have non-China Vitamin C products (most Vitamin C comes from China, I have read) that is manufactured in Scotland from nonGMO corn. Look for the Quali-C symbol. This won’t be useful to those with corn allergies, but for the rest of us I believe it’s worth looking at. I also take Pure Radiance C for my daily C requirement, but when colds, flu, and other illness strikes, I want the Quali-C on hand.
Also, you can’t overdose because it is water-soluble and the body has no trouble excreting what it cannot use 🙂
Did you read the article? Just because your body can excrete the excess doesn’t mean it isn’t damaging to consume so much! There is evidence the kidneys can be damaged this way. Why not take whole food vitamin C where you get better potency with much lower dosages?
Response to “Alex – the nutritionist” : Hey Alex, thank you for your objective, scientific and most of all intelligent and open minded comment ! I also wanted to write exactly what you wrote but I lack education level 🙂 Your comment on Vit C, this so important medicine which heal rapidly all defective body cells, is truly perfect. Recently I was consuming for a month pure organic cerola powder with sodium bicarbonate in water, cause only acerola is too acidic. Now I take again pure L-ascorbic Vit C and I feel significantly more energy and strength, so your note that all those organic powder are actually quite depleted form of Vit C after all harvesting, processing, travelling etc. Also your advice to take fruits directly from the vine to get enough Vit C is very good. Actually L.ascorbic Vit C might be more effective cause it is not sensitive to time factor, travelling etc, it simply keep all its power. My stomach is quite sensitive and I can tell that pure Lascorbic acid bring no problem to my well being, I simply add some pure sodium bicarbonate powder along with Lascorbic acid into water and get very powerful health drink which give so much energy and strength and also sodium purify toxins so much from the body and alkalize which is very good for health, to have too much acidity in body is no good for health at all and sodium is the answer, also people who complain that Lascorbic causes them acid reflux need just add enough sodium to Lascorbic and they will have no problems. Off course vitamins and minerals etc from natural sources-food are very good but I simply must take additional Lascorbic Vit C to have enough energy and to feel good, earth today is too polluted to get enough Vit C naturally ! So why to complicate life, take Lascorbic and if you dont feel good its possible it is from bad source one I take make me feel very good and I would feel if something wrong as my organism is quite sensitive. Of course we need to be discriminative but not too paranoid as Alex beautifully pointed out. Love, peace and good health to all !! 🙂
For many years clynical studies have been made on different subjects -males, females of all kind of age, profession etc as well as all kind of animals. All clynical studies have shown that natural C vitamin from food does have more bioaviability on animals organism than ascorbic acid (syntetic C vit) but no differencess have been shown on all human subjects at all, bioaviability of natural C vitamin and ascorbic acid is the same for all humans. Still vitamin C through natural food is preferable cause it contains many other vitamins, minerals and other things that body need. Still concept that all ascorbic acid is made from GMO corn might be quite wrong so this statement should be really studied on ALL producers of Ascorbic C vitamin before making such statement go out publicly, so probably many producers of ascorbic acid are still without GMO and would be probably offended by such statement. If some product of asc acid truly came from GMO food then its simply wrong to putt all asc acid producers in same basket really total study of all world asc acid producers should be made before such statement (and by names of product) and then it should be calculated in % how many of those are truly from good sources and how many from GMO food.
HI Sarah,
Great Info and i will avoid GMO;s as much as i can, Just Say NO to GMO, Just say NO to Monsanto!
HI Sarah, great onfo, Thanks, Well here goes, as far as i know, All Extracts are made from GMO corn and are Alachol or Glysirin and Glyserin is a by product of Alachol. When i have Any Extracts i get a bad reaction. So it seems the best way is from a non extract source and where is that other than fresh fruit. And from what i understand a lot or most is made in China not the US. Scarry indeed. GMO’s are Everywhere and hard to not get it and i will not if i can get food without.
Thank you and hope you are doing well,
Sincerely,
Keary
Vitamin c is water soluable and is poorly absorbed via the gut it is still an acid so in large doses it will cause inflamation to your gut and cause pain, diarrhea and possably ulcers.
You could try Liposomal VitC, its uptake is significantly increased and it has significantly less effect on the gut.
Vit C is essential to life.
According to Linus Pauling, “Ascorbic acid is vitamin C. Those that do not get enough ascorbic acid grow sick and die.” There are many thousands of studies that support Pauling. We wrote the following rebuttal to the notion that vitamin C (e.g. ascorbic acid) could somehow be harmful. vitamincfoundation.org/NaturalC.htm
What brand of chewable do you buy for your children?