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Is Vitamin C Bad For You

Vitamin C Immunity Smoothie

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This easy Vitamin C Immunity Boosting Smoothie is made with fresh whole oranges, bananas, mango, ginger and honey for the most delicious and refreshing smoothie that will load you up with all the vitamins you need for a healthy winter!

As we are heading back to school and work after a wonderful winter break, the main goal is to stay healthy. We are doing everything we can to keep the colds down and our energy up and this delicious and easy Orange Vitamin C Immunity Smoothie is going to help you along the way!

Made with all fresh ingredients that are loaded with vitamins, whole and peeled oranges, bananas, frozen mango chunks, fresh ginger, lemon juice, honey and your milk of choice! This is a smoothie that you and your kids will love for breakfast, after school snack or can be enjoyed as a healthy dessert!

If you are into smoothies right now, you might also love this Blueberry Protein Smoothie or Mango Turmeric Smoothie.

A Little Bit About Vitamin C

According to the Mayo Clinic, you need vitamin C for healing and forming vital parts of your body like muscles, cartilage, collagen, and blood vessels. This essential vitamin has also been proven to help reduce the negative effects of free radicals in your bodywhich are known to lead to heart disease and cancer.

Because your body can’t naturally make vitamin C on its own, it needs to get it from food or supplements. Some common vitamin C-rich foods are oranges, kiwis, strawberries, kale, Brussels sprouts, and bell peppers.

It is recommended that adult women get around 75 milligrams of vitamin C per day, and adult men about 90 milligrams. If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, this number increases to between 85 to 120 milligrams a day.

Excessive Intake Of Vitamin C Can Produce Negative Interactions

Taking a Vitamin C supplement in a higher dosage than whats recommended can have adverse interactions, especially if youre on certain medications.

Some medicines contain aluminum such as phosphate binders. Taking more than 2,000 mg in supplement form can increase your absorption of aluminum. This can be harmful to people suffering from kidney problems.

If youre taking an oral contraceptive or are on a hormone replacement therapy, taking an excess of Vitamin C in supplement form may increase your estrogen levels.

Talk to your doctor if youre on chemotherapy. Using antioxidants like Vitamin C while undergoing chemotherapy may reduce the drugs effects. However, speak with your physician first as there is a difference in opinion on antioxidants and its effects on chemotherapy.

Taking Vitamin C orally in supplement form may reduce the effects of protease inhibitors. And if youre taking Vitamin C with niacin, Warfarin, Coumadin or Jantoven, it may reduce the effects the prescribed drug is supposed to have on your body.

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What Is The Most Important Information I Should Know About Ascorbic Acid

You should not use ascorbic acid if you have ever had an allergic reaction to a vitamin C supplement.

Ask a doctor or pharmacist about using ascorbic acid if you have:

  • kidney disease or a history of kidney stones
  • hereditary iron overload disorder or
  • if you smoke .

Your dose needs may be different during pregnancy or while you are breast-feeding a baby. Do not use ascorbic acid without your doctor’s advice in either case.

What Are The Side Effects Of Ascorbic Acid

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Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives difficult breathing swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.

Stop using ascorbic acid and call your doctor at once if you have:

  • joint pain, weakness or tired feeling, weight loss, stomach pain
  • chills, fever, increased urge to urinate, painful or difficult urination or
  • severe pain in your side or lower back, blood in your urine.

Common side effects may include:

  • heartburn, upset stomach or
  • nausea, diarrhea, stomach cramps.

This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088.

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Heart Disease And Cancer

Research suggests that vitamin C may help prevent heart disease and cancer.

Antioxidants like vitamin C do seem to reduce the oxidative stress associated with these diseases. This can happen when there are too many free radicals in your body.

A 2013 review found that vitamin C may help prevent stroke. This was mostly true for people who had low intake of vitamin C before treatment or were at high risk for stroke.

The review only found this benefit for vitamin C from food sources, not from supplements.

A 2013 review noted that high intake of vitamin C does seem to be associated with a lower risk of certain cancers. It also noted that intravenous vitamin C has been shown to improve outcomes for cancer patients.

Many experimental cancer therapies include using vitamin C along with other treatments, however. This makes it hard to know how much of an impact vitamin C has on its own.

What Foods Contain Vitamin C

In general, fruits contain more vitamin C than vegetables. Examples of foods that are high in vitamin C and the amount of vitamin C they contain include:

  • Red capsicum: 240mg per capsicum
  • Grapefruit: 94mg per grapefruit
  • Cantaloupe: 29mg per ½ cup
  • Cauliflower: 26 per ½ cup
  • Silverbeet: 27mg per cup .

In general, raw fruits and vegetables contain higher quantities of vitamin C than boiled, although steaming and microwaving may reduce vitamin C losses. Prolonged storage can also reduce vitamin C levels.

Experts consider a diet that supplies 100200 mg/day of vitamin C provides enough vitamin C to cover a healthy individuals general requirements. People with medical conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, lung disease, or who smoke or exercise a lot should consider increasing their dietary intake of vitamin C.

Consuming five varied servings of fruits and vegetables a day can provide more than 200mg of vitamin C. Breastmilk is considered an adequate source of vitamin C in breastfeeding infants. Infant formula is already fortified with vitamin C.

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Are Vitamin C Supplements Necessary

It is always best to get your nutrients from food rather than supplements.

Fruits and vegetables, especially citrus fruits, are good sources. Foods naturally rich in vitamin C include:

  • Raw red peppers: 95 mg per 1/2-cup serving
  • Orange juice: 90 mg per 3/4-cup serving
  • Orange: 70 mg per one medium fruit
  • Kiwi: 64 mg per one medium fruit
  • Raw green peppers: 60 mg per 1/2-cup serving
  • Cooked broccoli: 51 mg per 1/2-cup serving
  • Strawberries: 49 mg per 1/2-cup serving
  • Cooked Brussels sprouts: 48 mg per 1/2-cup serving
  • Tomato juice: 33 mg per 1/2-cup serving
  • Cantaloupe: 29 mg per 1/2-cup serving

If you don’t get enough vitamin C from what you eat, a supplement can help get you to the right levels.

What To Look For

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All supplements should be purchased with caution. You can make sure you’re getting a safe, high-quality supplement by choosing products that have been tested and certified by a third party.

Look for products certified by an independent certifying body like U.S. Pharmacopeia, ConsumerLab, or NSF International.

An ordinary L-ascorbic acid supplement may be a better value than supplements that contain other ingredients.

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How To Handle An Overdose On Vitamin C

If youre healthy, theres no way you can die from a Vitamin C overdose. However, if you do have health conditions, taking too much Vitamin C in supplement form can have some serious consequences.

If youre experiencing symptoms such as nausea, cramping or headaches, you could also benefit from using some over-the-counter drugs.

If you suspect youre overdosing on Vitamin C and youre taking prescription medicines or have a health condition, speak with your doctor. And, if the conditions persist or youre experiencing serious side effects such as difficulty breathing or kidney stones, contact your doctor.

Your physician can then assess the situation and take actions such as ordering tests and procedures and/or offering a prescription to help ease your symptoms and preventing any further harm being done to your body.

How Much Vitamin C Is Enough

Most of the studies Moyad and his colleagues examined used 500 daily milligrams of vitamin C to achieve health results. That’s much higher than the RDA of 75-90 milligrams a day for adults. So unless you can eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, you may need to take a dietary supplement of vitamin C to gain all the benefits, Moyad says. He suggests taking 500 milligrams a day, in addition to eating five servings of fruits and vegetables.

“It is just not practical for most people to consume the required servings of fruits and vegetables needed on a consistent basis, whereas taking a once-daily supplement is safe, effective, and easy to do,” Moyad says. He also notes that only 10% to 20% of adults get the recommended nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily.

Moyad says there is no real downside to taking a 500-milligram supplement, except that some types may irritate the stomach. That’s why he recommends taking a non-acidic, buffered form of the vitamin. “The safe upper limit for vitamin C is 2,000 milligrams a day, and there is a great track record with strong evidence that taking 500 milligrams daily is safe,” he says.

Continued

Still, American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Dee Sandquist, RD, suggests doing your best to work more fruits and vegetables into your diet before taking supplements.

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Taking Too Much Vitamin C Can Be Dangerous Study Finds

The New York Times By Jane E. Brody, April 9, 1998

Those who think that if a little vitamin C is good, more must be better should think again, says a team of British researchers, who found that a supplement of 500 milligrams a day could damage peoples genes. Many Americans take that much, or more, in hopes of preventing colds and reaping the widely celebrated antioxidant benefits of vitamin C. Antioxidants, which block cellular and molecular damage caused by the highly reactive molecules called free radicals, are believed to protect against heart disease, cancer, eye disorders like cataracts and macular degeneration, and other chronic health problems.

But the British researchers, chemical pathologists at the University of Leicester, found in a six-week study of 30 healthy men and women that a daily 500-milligram supplement of vitamin C had pro-oxidant as well as antioxidant effects on the genetic material DNA. The researchers found that at the 500-milligram level, vitamin C promoted genetic damage by free radicals to a part of the DNA, the adenine bases, that had not previously been measured in studies of the vitamins oxidative properties.

In contrast, vitamin C naturally present in food, he said, has no oxidizing effects.

Slow healing time, chronic infections, bleeding gums and bruising, loose teeth, gastric ulcers are all signs of vitamin C complex deficiencybut beware, ascorbic acid is not what we are talking about when we speak of vitamin C complex.

Why Is Vitamin C Important For Fighting Colds

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There are many studies confirming the benefits of taking vitamin C regularly for fighting colds. Vitamin C boosts the immune system and it is a great antioxidant. Even Dr. Fauci recommends it .

A very encouraging study showed that taking at least 200 mg of vitamin C per day did appear to reduce the duration of cold symptoms by an average of 8% in adults and 14% in children, which translated to about one less day of illness. That could be important for some people, since the common cold causes 23 million lost days of work each year, says Dr. Bistrian.

If you want the benefits of vitamin C, youll need to consume it every day, and not just at the start of cold symptoms. And it goes without saying that consuming it from natural sources is way better .

If you need to add more vitamin C to this recipe, like for example if you are fighting a cold, I recommend adding Organic Vitamin C Powder. Each tablespoon has 500mg of vitamin C and it comes from organic whole fruits. Just as a reference, most multivitamins that need to be taken daily contain 60mg of vitamin C.

  • 24 tablespoons raw honey
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract *optional
  • 1 tablespoon Vitamin C powder *optional if you want extra vitamin c

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Without Free Radicals Cells Would Continue To Grow And Divide Uncontrollably

We now know that free radicals are often used as molecular messengers that send signals from one region of the cell to another. In this role, they have been shown to modulate when a cell grows, when it divides in two, and when it dies. At every stage of a cells life, free radicals are vital.

Without them, cells would continue to grow and divide uncontrollably. Theres a word for this: cancer.

We would also be more prone to infections from outside. When under stress from an unwanted bacterium or virus, free radicals are naturally produced in higher numbers, acting as silent klaxons to our immune system. In response, those cells at the vanguard of our immune defense macrophages and lymphocytes start to divide and scout out the problem. If it is a bacterium, they will engulf it like Pac-Man eating a blue ghost.

It is trapped, but it is not yet dead. To change that, free radicals are once again called into action. Inside the immune cell, they are used for what they are infamous for: to damage and to kill. The intruder is torn apart.

From start to finish, a healthy immune response depends on free radicals being there for us, within us. As geneticists Joao Pedro Magalhaes and George Church wrote in 2006: In the same way that fire is dangerous and nonetheless humans learned how to use it, it now appears that cells evolved mechanisms to control and use .

What About Vitamin D

You may have noticed we left vitamin D off this fat-soluble list, and there is a good reason . The reason for this is that we dont typically see overdose with vitamin D as much, Dr. Gerber said. The data hasnt shown detrimental effects of high doses. In addition to this, many Americans are actually deficient in the vitamin as well.

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Most People Can Use It

Because Vitamin C is a naturally-occurring antioxidant, it has an excellent safety profile.12 This means that its ok for most people to use topically without experiencing any side effects.13

However you should always check the ingredients list of products you use on your skin if you have any allergies or sensitive skin issues.

How Much Vitamin C Is Too Much

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Since vitamin C is water-soluble and your body excretes excess amounts of it within a few hours after you consume it, its quite difficult to consume too much.

In fact, it is nearly impossible for you to get too much vitamin C from your diet alone. In healthy people, any extra vitamin C consumed above the recommended daily amount simply gets flushed out of the body .

To put it in perspective, you would need to consume 29 oranges or 13 bell peppers before your intake reached the tolerable upper limit (

19 ).

All the adverse effects of vitamin C, including digestive distress and kidney stones, appear to occur when people take it in mega doses greater than 2,000 mg .

If you choose to take a vitamin C supplement, it is best to choose one that contains no more than 100% of your daily needs. Thats 90 mg per day for men and 75 mg per day for women .

Summary:

Its nearly impossible to consume too much vitamin C from food. However, if youre supplementing with this vitamin, you can minimize your risk of getting too much by taking no more than 90 mg per day if youre a man, or 75 mg per day if youre a woman.

Vitamin C is generally safe for most people.

This is especially true if you get it from foods, rather than supplements.

Individuals who take vitamin C in supplement form are at greater risk of consuming too much of it and experiencing side effects, the most common of which are digestive symptoms.

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Can You Be Allergic To Vitamin C

Technically, no. The isolated vitamin of ascorbic acid is an essential nutrient for human health and you would die without it. However you can have an allergic reaction to vitamin C tablets, face cream, serum, and drinks containing it. Since ascorbic acid is often made using corn, those with an allergy to that plant are at risk.

Allergy to vitamin C causes are unlikely to be from corn since that is a very rare allergy. Plus, the potential amount of allergens remaining residual protein matter from the plant would likely be in a concentration of only parts per million . If you are experiencing ascorbic acid intolerance its likely you are allergic to another ingredient in that supplement, fortified food, or skin cream.

On a related note, theres a strong likelihood the corn used is genetically modified. If you want non-GMO ascorbic acid, then make sure the packaging is labeled as such. Organic food-derived sources will always be non-GMO.

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