"Take More Vitamin C!" For years this has been almost a mantra among physicians and nutrition experts. When people feel sick - "Take Vitamin C." When they are feeling run down and tired all the time - "Take Vitamin C." Given the fact that Vitamin C is, indeed, very healthy and good for you, it would be logical to assume that people are healthier than ever from taking massive amounts of this essential nutrient.
The evidence proves quite the opposite, though. People are getting sick more often, they feel worse than ever before, and it seems that no one is experiencing any energy increase from taking more Vitamin C. The underlying problem is not that Vitamin C doesn't work, it is because people are getting this nutrient in the form of synthetic vitamins.
Whole Food Vitamins
Overly Refined is Never Good
The synthetic form of a vitamin takes nutrients through an unnatural refining process. This process involves the chemical engineering of corn starch to produce ascorbic acid. The end result, as it pertains to synthetic Vitamin C, is mega-high doses of ascorbic acid, without any of the essential co-factors, found in whole food sources, which make it beneficial for your health.
Doctors have people taking Vitamin C, as synthetic ascorbic acid, in doses of 1,000 mg or more, as a preventative health measure, when these people would be better served by eating a simple lemon instead. Vitamins consumed via natural, healthy whole foods bypass the refining process that strips away their effectiveness.
The Lesson from Refined Foods
Decades ago, the health benefits of refined, white flour were flaunted as being essential for good health. The food industry refined flour to the point that any healthy elements were really stripped away. After a few decades on the "Wonder Bread" diet, the health levels of consumers began to deteriorate rapidly. It didn't take long to figure out why, processed flour completely removed healthy fiber that people need for good health.
The end result has been a population of people suffering from a serious lack of healthy fiber. The same process has repeated itself with the refining of synthetic vitamins. Sure people get plenty of ascorbic acid from synthetic Vitamin C, but the process used to manufacture this ascorbic acid robs consumers of the vital co-factors that make it effective. These kinds of vitamin products ruin health instead of promoting it.
Natural is Simply Better
When scientists produce synthetic versions of vitamins, they inevitably end up with products that do the exact opposite of what they are supposed to do. People taking the synthetic versions of Vitamin C end up with lower energy levels because the body will attempt to replicate the missing co-factors by stealing nutrients from body tissue. In essence, the vitamins that are supposed to be fortifying the body, end up leaving it depleted and in worse condition than before any vitamins were taken at all.
The way nature makes vitamins and nutrients in plants cannot be replicated by chemist now and it will likely never be possible. A small amount of vitamin C occurring in a green pepper is tremendously more nutritionally functional than 1,000 mg of ascorbic acid from a bottle.
The Right Way to Add Vitamin C
Stay away from Vitamin C products that are nothing but ascorbic acid in super-high doses. To get Vitamin C, do it the old fashioned way and eat a piece of fruit, or use a juicer to make some healthy, homemade juice. You will be getting the vitamin you need with all the essential co-factors that make it effective to start with. Toss out those synthetic vitamins and get your nourishment the way nature intended.
You CANNOT sustain life eating synthetic multi-vitamins and minerals.