Vitamin C is a water-soluble nutrient with many important features in your physique.
It helps strengthen your immune system, aids collagen manufacturing and wound therapeutic, and acts as an antioxidant to guard your cells from free radical harm (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7).
Vitamin C is also called L-ascorbic acid, or just ascorbic acid.
In contrast to different animals, people can not synthesize vitamin C on their very own. Due to this fact, it’s essential to get sufficient of it from meals or dietary supplements to keep up good well being (8, 9).
This text explains the beneficial dosage of vitamin C for optimum well being.
What’s the beneficial consumption?
The Institute of Medication (IOM) has developed a set of reference values for particular nutrient consumption ranges, together with for vitamin C.
One set of pointers is named the Advisable Dietary Allowance (RDA) and considers common every day nutrient consumption from each meals and dietary supplements.
RDA suggestions for particular gender and age teams ought to meet the nutrient wants of 97–98% of wholesome people (10).
Listed here are the RDAs for vitamin C (11):
Along with the RDA suggestions for vitamin C, the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a beneficial Each day Worth (DV).
The DV was developed for meals and complement labels. It helps you identify the share of vitamins in a single serving of meals, in contrast with the every day necessities. On meals labels, that is displayed as %DV (12).
At the moment, the beneficial DV for vitamin C for adults and youngsters aged 4 and above is 60 mg no matter gender. Nevertheless, in January 2020, this may enhance to 90 mg (8).
Could profit some situations
Vitamin C is crucial for general well being and wellness, and the nutrient could notably profit sure situations.
The vitamin is very useful for immune well being, because it helps your immune system’s mobile perform (13).
Actually, vitamin C dietary supplements could assist forestall an infection, whereas a deficiency of the vitamin seems to make you extra vulnerable to an infection (13, 14, 15.)
For instance, some analysis means that though common vitamin C consumption probably gained’t forestall you from catching a chilly, it might scale back the length or severity of chilly signs (16).
A overview of 31 research discovered that consuming 1–2 grams of vitamin C every day decreased chilly length by 18% in kids and eight% in adults (16).
As well as, it’s identified that vitamin C will increase iron absorption. Thus, people with iron deficiency may profit from growing their vitamin C consumption (17, 18)
Greatest meals sources
Sometimes, the perfect sources of vitamin C are vegatables and fruits.
It’s necessary to notice that vitamin C in meals is well destroyed by warmth, however since many good sources of the nutrient are vegatables and fruits, merely consuming a few of these meals uncooked is a straightforward approach to attain the beneficial consumption.
For instance, a 1/2-cup (75-gram) serving of uncooked pink pepper supplies 158% of the RDA set by the IOM (8).
The desk beneath shows the vitamin C content material and contribution to the beneficial Each day Worth (DV) for among the finest meals sources of the nutrient (8).
This desk relies on the present 60-mg advice, however since any meals offering 20% or extra of the DV for vitamin C is taken into account a excessive supply, many of those meals will nonetheless be nice sources after the DV advice is modified to 90 mg in January 2020 (8).
Nice meals sources of vitamin C embody:
Greatest vitamin C dietary supplements
When on the lookout for a vitamin C complement, you may see the nutrient in a pair totally different types (8):
Selecting a complement with ascorbic acid is often a good selection, because it has a excessive degree of bioavailability, that means your physique absorbs it simply (8, 19, 20, 21).
Moreover, given that the majority multivitamins comprise ascorbic acid, selecting a multivitamin is not going to solely increase your vitamin C consumption but in addition your consumption of different vitamins.
To make sure you’re receiving enough quantities of vitamin C from the complement you select, search for a complement that gives between 45–120 mg of this vitamin relying in your age and intercourse.
Can you are taking an excessive amount of? – “vitamin c daily”
Though vitamin C has an general low toxicity danger in wholesome people, consuming an excessive amount of of it could possibly trigger some antagonistic gastrointestinal unwanted side effects, together with cramps, nausea, and diarrhea (11, 22).
Moreover, since a excessive vitamin C consumption will increase the physique’s absorption of non-heme iron, consuming an excessive amount of vitamin C might trigger issues for folks with hemochromatosis, a situation through which the physique retains an excessive amount of iron (23, 24, 25, 26).
Due to the potential unwanted side effects of extreme vitamin C, the IOM has established the next Tolerable Higher Consumption Ranges (UL) for the vitamin (11):
The underside line
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin and important antioxidant that performs many roles in your physique. It helps wound therapeutic, collagen formation, and immunity.
The RDA for vitamin C is 45–120 mg relying in your age and intercourse.
Vitamin C dietary supplements ought to meet the RDA and keep nicely beneath the established UL — 400 for younger kids, 1,200 mg for youths aged 9–13, 1,800 mg for teenagers, and a pair of,000 mg for adults.
Consuming quite a lot of vitamin-C-rich vegatables and fruits can even go a great distance in supporting optimum well being and wellness.
associated tales