You won’t have to run into the vitamin C supplement supplement corridor.
Supplement sales surged in 2020, and analysts expect this trend to continue for 10 years. Vitamin C supplements have exploded in popularity, especially as Nutritional Outlook reports a 61.8% increase in sales in 2020.
However, according to data and expert interviews, very few Americans need to take vitamin C supplements, especially those in milligrams, which are much higher than the daily recommendations. Even if the diet can lower vitamin C, experts have told insiders to eat more fruits and vegetables instead of rushing to the supplement corridor.
“If you’re really consuming all the vitamin C people buy, it’s likely that you’re consuming too much vitamin C,” said Kirstin Vollrath, a registered dietitian and professor at the University of Houston. Told to.
Most Americans Are Not Deficient in Vitamin C
In 2018, the Food and Drug Administration stopped requiring companies to list the amount of vitamin C in foods because nutrient deficiencies are “rare today.”
According to the 2021 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, about 6% of the US population is deficient in vitamin C. This study of more than 6,000 participants found no association between age, race, gender, or obesity and vitamin C deficiency, but the problem is more common among smokers. It was a target.
An independent team of preventive medicine experts recently stated that there is not enough evidence that taking dietary supplements can prevent cardiovascular disease.
The team did not recommend taking supplements for healthy adults, but the advice did not apply to pregnant people, children with chronic illnesses, and those diagnosed with defects.
Certain diets can reduce vitamin C intake, but nutritionists recommend taking it from foods rather than supplements.
Americans with a balanced diet are more likely to get enough vitamin C from foods such as potatoes, apples, tomatoes, peppers, and oranges, Vollrath said. According to the National Institutes of Health, a third glass of red pepper or orange juice provides a sufficient amount of recommended vitamin C per day.
Philippe Hujoel, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington, told insiders. People on a carnivorous, ketone body-producing, or low-carb diet are at risk of not meeting their daily allowances if they eat more meat than fruits and vegetables.
However, running in the supplement corridor may not be the best solution for low vitamin C.
Hujoel said the “big problem” is that supplements tend to contain more vitamin C than they need.
Popular brands like Emergen-C and Nature Made promote supplements containing 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C. This is well above the recommended 75 mg for men and 90 mg for women. In a 2013 class proceeding, the manufacturer of Emergen-C claimed to have “seemingly” sold the product as an enhancement to the immune system without evidence. The company denied the allegations, but settled the case for $ 6.45 million. (Emergen-C and Nature Made did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.)
According to Vollrath, people use only the amount of vitamin C they need to function and excrete the rest, so taking extra vitamin C doesn’t make a person healthy. She explained that when a person ingests vitamin C, nutrients are absorbed in the intestines and taken up by cells, helping to produce proteins and hormones.
The body stores some vitamin C in the cells, but the kidneys filter the blood and excrete excess vitamin C in the urine.
Therefore, spending large amounts of money on high doses of vitamin C can be a “very expensive pee,” Vollrath said.
According to Vollrath, a cost-effective way is to add vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables to your diet if you don’t think you’re getting enough. Foods also provide biochemicals and fibers that tablets cannot provide.
“It would be difficult to produce a supplement that mimics the exact nutrient profile of these foods and offers the same health benefits,” Emma Rein, a clinical professor and registered dietitian at the University of Georgia, told insiders earlier. ..
Studies Do Not Show That Taking Vitamin C Supplements Prevents Colds
Some people take vitamin C supplements when they catch a cold, but research shows that nutrients themselves cannot prevent a cold.
A 2013 review of a placebo-controlled trial found no evidence that vitamin C supplementation prevented the common cold.
According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrated Hygiene, Vitamin C may slightly reduce the length and severity of colds, but in studies where participants took supplements after they were already infected with the virus, Vitamin C improved their symptoms. It is shown not to. Vollrath said vitamin C must already be present in the body before the onset of a cold to reduce its severity.
“Vitamin C can help in combination with
zinc
It may help reduce the severity and length of a cold, but it cannot prevent you from getting sick, “Vollrath said.
