"vitamin c" news and stories

My friends, I have a serious addiction. I gave up cigarettes almost two years ago. I finally quit chewing that nasty Nicorette gum to get over the cigarettes. I am gently weaning myself off the patch. (It's a long process, but worth it!)

No, no. I am not addicted to nicotine -- anymore, that is. I am addicted to vitamin C.

You know what Emergen-C is, right? It's that somewhat expensive powdered vitamin and mineral super-boost that you add to water (somewhat like Airborne) and drink. The thing is, it's not like I go through true withdrawal symptoms like getting jittery or twitching if I don't have my usual fix of Emergen-C three times a day. It's just that, well, for some reason, I can't stop drinking it. Most people drink it when they are sick, or when they can feel illnes coming on. I drink it everyday. In fact, I don't even "drink" the powder dissolved in the prescribed 8 oz of water. I add a tiny amount of water, stir it up, and shoot it. I am addicted to it, and I have to take it like a shot because it actually does taste pretty horrible. Then again, for a lot of people, this is considered "medicine."

I suppose there are worse things I could be drinking morning, noon, and night, that are far worse than a raspberry flavored fizzy vitamin booster!

What are you addicted to that you eat/drink it at least three times a day?! Come on. Don't make me feel like the only weirdo.

Two 14-year-old New Zealand girls made the news recently when their school science project revealed that Ribena, the popular black currant drink, did not have the high levels of vitamin C it claimed to. According to a story published yesterday in The Guardian, the girls were testing a variety of beverages, expecting to find that the less expensive ones had less vitamin C, when they discovered the opposite. Their results were picked up by a local news show and then eventually a national watchdog group. Today, The Guardian reported that GlaxoSmithKline, the drink's producer, is being fined almost $160,000 for misleading ads, which stated "the black currants in Ribena contain four times the vitamin C of oranges." A GSK press release says that that fact is true "on a weight for weight basis," but also admits that it could be misleading. There's also some discrepancy about the differing vitamin C levels in the concentrate versus the diluted product. On a personal note, I was a Ribena drinker for a while. I think it's tasty stuff. I don't think I ever believed it was good for me, however.

The UCLA School of Public Health recently finished a study that found that men and women who ate a cup of salad each day had higher concentrations of folic acid, vitamins C and E, lycopene and alpha and beta carotene in the bloodstream than men and women who did not. Because many people do not get enough nutrients even when taking nutritional supplements, this is good news to anyone who can make room in their diet for an additional 90grams (1 cup) of salad on a daily basis.

Salad, as it was counted in the study, is considered to be raw vegetables, salad greens (lettuce, etc) and dressing. Scientists say that the results of this study should help to dispell the concerns that they body may have difficulty absorbing nutritents from raw vegetables, though a little bit of low fat dressing couldn't hurt - not to mention that salads are just a little bit more interesting with an added layer of flavor.

Source

Hungry Girl has a quick and easy to read rundown of the properties of Vitamins A through K, complete with information about what each vitamin is, what it does and where to get it.

For example, Vitamin A is primarily found in brightly colored fruits and vegetables, while Vitamin D is in fish, like salmon and tuna, and can also be gotten from spending time in the sun. Vitamin B mostly comes from animal-based sources, but can also be found in whole grains and green, leafy vegetables. Citrus fruits will provide plenty of Vitamin C, which can help fight colds and other illnesses. Vitamin E boosts your immune system, while K regulates blood clotting. For a full listing of all you need to know about these vitamins, check out Hungry Girl's list.

Source

Eating two grapefruits a day seems to help heal bleeding gums, according to the results of recent study from a German university. The high levels of Vitamin C apparently helped promote wound healing and reduced damage by free radicals, according to a recent article in The Times of India. Of the nearly 60 participants in the study from Friedrich Schiller University, smokers in the group generally had 29 percent lower levels of Vitamin C than non-smokers. It's unclear why levels of the vitamin were lower in smokers.

I'm not sure why researchers focused on grapefruits in particular. I guess if you take anything away from this news, it's that Vitamin C may help your gums. If 14 grapefruits a week is too much for you though, just floss.

[Photo: Nick Vagnoni]