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Wolfie’s Nutrition Guide
An occasional series
As I think I may have mentioned on these pages before, I work for Health Plus, a company that sells nutritional supplements. I use our products on a daily basis and can honestly say that they have had a positive effect on my health. But during the course of an average day, I find myself answering some quite basic questions from customers - things that you’d think would be general knowledge but don’t appear to be. There are many reasons for this - including the restrictive legislation that exists regarding what can and cannot be said about the nutrients in a supplement - so I’d like to offer the first in an occasional series of articles about vitamins and minerals. I’ll try not to get too technical (’cos otherwise I won’t understand it), and I’ll try not to ramble on and hopefully the information I offer will be useful for someone out there.
As we’re well into the cold season now, and as the one thing everyone knows is that when you have a cold you should take vitamin C, I’ll start there.
Vitamin C is one of those nutrients that is known as an antioxidant; what this means is that it helps the body to fend off free radicals. These are molecules containing oxygen that have an unpaired electron which creates an uneven electrical charge. The molecule then tries to re-balance itself by robbing neighbouring molecules, which triggers a set of reactions that can damage cell membranes, proteins, carbohydrates and even DNA - the genetic material of the cell. This reaction continues until the free radical is neutralised (or scavenged) by an antioxidant. Other antioxidant nutrients include vitamins A and E, and the minerals selenium and zinc.
Most people know that vitamin C comes from oranges, but it can also be found in most other fruits and vegetables. The problem is knowing how much, or how little, you’re getting from your diet. One study a few years ago that I read about reported that, in a random sampling of oranges, the vitamin C content ranged from nothing to 180mg. This uncertainty about the nutritional content of food is what first leads many people to take a supplement - especially in the winter when they feel they need extra protection.
Used by the body in over 300 biochemical reactions, vitamin C can:
- Help make collagen - the building block that your body uses for all its skin, connective tissue, cartilage, tendons and more
- Reduce the risk of viral attack
- Help the growth and repair of tissue
- Maintain normal blood fat and cholesterol levels
- Help your immune system to function fully - even when under attack.
- Assist the uptake of iron from the diet
- Aid haemoglobin and red blood cell production
It is also a vital co-factor for the proper metabolisation and utilisation of other nutrients; Zinc, for example, is much more well absorbed in the presence of vitamin C.
Unlike some other nutrients, the human body is unable to synthesise vitamin C, so we have to rely on external sources - our food, basically. Linus Pauling, well known advocate of vitamin C supplementation, was of the opinion that we lost the ability to synthesise vitamin C because of our fruit rich diet. However, vitamin C is the most unstable of all the vitamins so is easily destroyed in food by poor storage, peeling, over-cooking, etc. It is also water-soluble (meaning it is not stored in the body but is flushed away), so a daily intake is essential.
So how much do I need?
Well, opinion is divided. According to the EU, you only need 60mg per day. This is what they call their Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA). According to the powers-that-be, this is all you need to stop yourself being deficient in vitamin C.
But avoiding deficiency is not the same as promoting good health. To do that, you need much more than 60mg - even eating just your five-a-day should give you more than 60mg per day (provided you’re eating good quality produce rather than fast-grown, insecticide-riddled, watery rubbish). Linus Pauling (who studied vitamin C for many years and attributed his staving-off of cancer to the nutrient) used to take 25g (25,000mg).
Most sensible people would suggest that you need something a bit more in the middle. I take around 2,000mg per day, and I up it to around 6,000mg a day if I should happen to get a cold (which I rarely do these days) until the symptoms disappear.
What should I take?
The most common form of vitamin C in any type of product - from nutritional supplements to fizzy drinks and everything in-between - is ascorbic acid. This also tends to be the cheapest option, just because it is so common. Ascorbic acid is not right for everyone though; if you have stomach acid problems, you’ll want to avoid it and choose something that contains calcium ascorbate or sodium ascorbate. If you want a chewable tablet you should go for these, as well; if you chew ascorbic acid tablets over a period of time they will strip the enamel off your teeth. Most chewable tablets, though, will contain sugar to make them palatable. This can be a mixed-blessing as too much sugar can interfere with vitamin C absorption.
Start with 1,000mg per day and see how you go. If your intake of vitamin C has been very low previously, you might notice a laxative effect when you take this amount. This should lessen quickly as your body gets used to the intake. If it doesn’t, reduce your intake to 500mg and try again. When your body is used to that, try going back up to 1,000mg.
Some people find they get on better with tablets, some people prefer powders (usually mixed with water or fruit juice); either is good - just make sure that you’re getting 500mg or 1,000mg of elemental vitamin C.
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[...] I realise that my post the other day about vitamin C may have confused some people, because of the use of [...]