Date: 20 Aug 1994 07:44:24 -0700 From: taltar@vertigo.helix.net (Ted Altar) Subject: Vit C from Fruit (repost) Newsgroups: rec.food.veg Organization: Helix Internet Lines: 82 VITAMIN C: WHAT ABOUT FRESH FRUIT AND WHAT ABOUT MEGA-DOSES? Ted Altar In general, fresh fruit is better than, say, orange juice made from oranges. The reason is that vitamin C in fruit deteriorates when exposed to air and when heated or frozen (which producers of juice will do in order to kill or suspend the action of mold). In fact, during the freezing or canning processes of any fruit or vegetable (and this includes packaging fruit juice in cartons), 50% or more of the vitamin in fruits or vegetables may be lost! Of course, if they add synthetic vitamin C to the juice at the processing plant, then all bets are off. ;-) Irrespective of vitamin C, the taste and orange tang freshly squeezed orange juice, especially from organic oranges, simply can't be beaten by any carton juice that I know of. Delicious! :) Incidentally, other factors regarding vitamin C absorption are worth noting. For instance, normally 80% to 90% of vitamin C intakes up to 100mg/day are absorbed, while amounts greater than that are less well absorbed. Intakes of 60 mg is sufficient to replace the 3% of the 1,500 mg body pool of vitamin C. If the body pool drops below 300 mg, then scurvy can develop. The maxium amount that the body pool can contain may be as high as 5,000 mg. Assuming that 3% is used up daily, then 120 mg will maintain "tissue saturation",. It is not clear if this is desireable, but some nutritionists think so. Still, it is worth noting the words of Dr. Robert Hodges: No one pretends that the mere avoidance of deficiency diseas represents an optimal nutrient intake for humans. But the term "tissue saturation", when referring to vitamin C allowances, suggests that there is somthing healthful about "full saturation" with this nutrient. This same philosophy has never been used with regard to any other nutrient, with the possible exception of protein. For example, we make no effort to try to attain the highest possible tissue concentration of thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid or, indeed, even of iron. Diets high in zinc, copper, iron or pectin are thought to decrease absorption or affect vitamin C's nutritional status in some other way (e.g., possible oxidization). That is why taking mineral supplements if you don't really need them can affect your vitamin status of such things like vitamin C, and therefore make for nutritional imbalances although one might have thought that he or she was helping to prevent nutritional imbalances by taking the supplement in the first place. And of course, there are some toxicity problems with taking too much of certain nutrients. The best place to get your daily nutrients is from whole foods, not supplements, unless you have to for medical reasons or due to special circumstances as properly assessed by a nutritionist or doctor. In any case, people should be far more careful then they are about self-medicating themselves with vitamins and minerals. Besides, why waste your money on needless supplements, the only benefit maybe to turn your urine a brilliant yellow. ;-( Some benefit. Cheers, Ted References: Howerde Sauberlich, PhD. "Vitamins -- How Much is For Keeps?" NUTRITION TODAY, 1987, 21:20 Charles Marshall, PhD. VITAMINS AND MINERALS: HELP OR HARM, 1985. Robert Hodges, MODERN NUTRITION IN HEALTH AND DISEASE, 1980.