How commercial 'vitamin C' supplements can adversely affect your health

Most supplements being sold as "vitamin C" do not contain true, natural vitamin C at all, but is "ascorbic acid," a synthetically manufactured chemical derived from glucose using a chemical process involving microorganisms, acetone - a dangerous solvent and sodium hypochlorite bleach.

Synthetic ascorbic acid does not have the same biological properties and therefore benefits as true vitamin C found for example in fruits, berries, vegetables and many other natural sources.

Modern sailors taking large quantities of vitamin C supplements on long voyages contract scurvy

One of the irrefutable empirical tests for the efficacy of vitamin C is whether taking it in high enough doses over a period of time will prevent scurvy - a disease associated with sailors on long voyages a few hundred years ago.

There have been several documented cases of modern day sailors embarking on long voyages taking a large quantity of vitamin C supplements. By the time the sailors reach their destination, they are already showing early symptoms of scurvy. One such case was documented by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, author of the GAPS Diet.

Biological vitamin C is effective, because the natural foods containing it also contain many other crucial constituents, such as enzymes, that make it bio-available to the digestive system and body as a whole.

Supplemental vitamin C as ascorbic acid can directly and indirectly cause serious health issues

Here are just a few ways in which supplemental vitamin C can bring adverse health consequences.

1. Reacts with iron in "enriched" foods, causing neurological conditions.
2.  Can cause thickening of the arteries. (American Heart Association)
3.  Causes loss of energy and endurance. (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
4. Increases risk of cardiovascular disease in people with diabetes. (AJCN)Scours other crucial minerals to be bio-effective, thus causing wider deficiencies.
5.  Shown to cause an increased risk of kidney stones.
6.  Kills "good microbes" in the gut, suppressing the immune system, and resistance to diseases.

*Note: As if there are not enough creative ways for the food industry to harm our health, they add finely ground iron metal to "enriched foods," such as processed white flour, cereals and others, which have been stripped of natural nutritional value during intensive processing. They do this to achieve legally required levels of basic minerals, e.g. iron, by simply adding iron metal powder directly.

One of the most visual and compelling demonstrations of the contamination by iron metal in foods is that flakes of corn in the popular cereal Cornflakes can easily be demonstrated to be magnetic.

Ascorbic acid reacts with elemental iron in the body to form dehydroascorbic acid, an oxidizing free radical that has adverse effects on the neurons of the brain.

Taking vitamin C supplements is totally unnecessary when following a balanced, nutritious diet including fruits, vegetables and other natural products, ideally raw, as cooking kills many nutrients, such as enzymes, which are killed at 70 degrees Celsius and are crucial in the absorption and assimilation process of nutrients, vitamins and minerals as a whole.

Fruits and vegetables are abundant in true, natural vitamin C and a wide array of other nutrients, and they are the best choice for maintaining maximum health.