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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Natural Remedies / Is Your Vitamin C Real or Synthetic?

Is Your Vitamin C Real or Synthetic?

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Three Studies Suggest Caution with High Dose Ascorbic Acid
  • Fan of Linus Pauling? Consider This…
  • What about High Dose, Intravenous Ascorbic Acid?
  • Whole Food Vitamin C is Naturally Low Dose
  • Ascorbic Acid is Usually from Genetically Modified Corn
  • What to Look for in a True Vitamin C Product

natural vitamin C vs ascorbic acid

Did you know that ascorbic acid is actually synthetic vitamin C? What’s more, it is usually GMO vitamin C, which means it was derived from GMO corn.

If you are learning this for the first time, it can be a rather shocking realization as almost all vitamin C supplements on the market use isolated ascorbic acid separated from a whole food source. The manufacturing process that produces synthetically derived vitamin C leaves all the beneficial co-factors behind!

Even more disturbing, ascorbic acid is frequently marketed as natural vitamin C and added to organic foods as a natural preservative. Truly natural forms of vitamin C and synthetic ascorbic acid seem to be used interchangeably.

How confusing for the consumer!

Nearly all juices and fruit products are loaded up with ascorbic acid, even many organic, healthfood store versions. It seems that if a product is labeled “high in Vitamin C”, consumers buy more of it.

A lot of folks are being fooled by these misleading semantics. There is a growing body of evidence that those consuming high doses of ascorbic acid should have reason to worry.

Three Studies Suggest Caution with High Dose Ascorbic Acid

The journal Wise Traditions cites three studies that give pause about large doses of vitamin C. The first, from the Jun 15, 2001 issue of Science, showed that “synthetic vitamin C may contribute to the formation of genotoxins that can lead to cancer”.

A second study presented to the American Heart Association showed a link between consumption of only 500 mg of vitamin C per day and a greater propensity toward thickening of the arteries (Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2000).

More recently, athletes taking 1000 mg of isolated ascorbic acid per day showed reduced endurance capacity from interference with antioxidant enzymes (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jan 2008).

This information should give pause to anyone who is actively taking synthetic vitamin C supplements such as those Emergen-C packets that are available everywhere, from pharmacies and health food stores to even gas stations!

Supplements like these are NOT boosting immunity and are NOT good for you!

Synthetic vitamins such as ascorbic acid act more like drugs in the body rather than whole food nutrients with all the available co-factors. Taking any synthetic vitamin can cause imbalances in the body and should be avoided.

Another worrisome and popular trend is the recommendation of some alternative health professionals to do a “vitamin C flush” during illness. This therapy (if you can call it that) calls for large doses of ascorbic acid until the onset of diarrhea.

This approach to regaining wellness has never made any sense to me. Now, with more studies indicating the danger of high doses of vitamin C, caution seems well-founded.

Fan of Linus Pauling? Consider This…

If you are a fan of Linus Pauling who popularized the notion of huge doses of Vitamin C for the common cold in the 1970s, consider this. GMO Vitamin C did not exist when Pauling was conducting his studies. GMO derived Vitamin C is what most people are unwittingly taking today!

What’s more, the studies indicating the danger of high doses of vitamin C over long periods of time had not been done yet. They were conducted long after Pauling died in 1994.

What about High Dose, Intravenous Ascorbic Acid?

What about high dose, intravenous ascorbic acid for the very ill? Note that vitamin C for IV use is almost always derived from GMO corn as well as being extremely high dose and synthetic ascorbic acid only.

Under certain circumstances and for the very ill, high dose GMO ascorbic acid therapy can be beneficial. For example, my husband used IV ascorbic acid therapy immediately after each amalgam removal. This prevented any released mercury from getting stored in the tissues. Not doing this risks the development of autoimmune disease.

However, synthetic vitamin C especially when genetically modified shouldn’t be a regular feature in anyone’s diet or supplement regimen.

synthetic vitamin c

Whole Food Vitamin C is Naturally Low Dose

The best way to get vitamin C on a daily basis is from whole foods sources. This will provide you this critical nutrient at a low dosage that will do no harm over the long term.

When you get the whole foods version of vitamin C, you don’t need much at all. A truly natural vitamin C supplement with no isolated ascorbic acid is naturally low-dose and yet highly effective.

Don’t forget about the benefits of fresh grassfed milk – a great source of vitamin C. The vitamin C in milk is mostly destroyed by pasteurization, along with many other nutrients. This is why buying fresh and local is so important.

Fresh and lacto-fermented fruits and vegetables (such as traditional sauerkraut) are other excellent sources of the whole vitamin C complex.

Perhaps folks feel the need to take large doses of synthetic vitamin C because all the processed foods they are eating are so devoid of the nutrient in its whole form. Switching to whole foods and dumping those vitamin C supplements in the trash would be a much better approach to boosting immunity!

Ascorbic Acid is Usually from Genetically Modified Corn

What’s worse is that ascorbic acid is not just synthetic. Remember that it is also usually derived from genetically modified corn! More on that GMO vitamin C travesty fooling millions of consumers every single day in the linked article.

Another vitamin scam harming consumers concerns synthetic folate commercially known as folic acid.

The pushing of beta carotene as true vitamin A by food manufacturers and supplement companies is another nutritional falsehood scamming millions of consumers and worse, seriously harming their health.

natural vitamin C brands

What to Look for in a True Vitamin C Product

To give you some idea of what to look for in a vitamin C supplement, here are the ingredients of the one I use. Notice that there is no isolated ascorbic acid or other ascorbates and no additives.  Just pure food Vitamin C sources. Please note that this is not the only Vitamin C supplement that qualifies as totally pure. There are a few others.

Pure Radiance C ingredients: camu camu berry extract, manioc root, acerola berry extract, amla berry extract, buckwheat sprouts, freeze-dried berry blend, blueberry, raspberry, cranberry, cherry, rose hips fruit, lemon peel, black pepper berry extract.

I also use the Amla C Plus. Here are the ingredients: Organic Amla berry, organic spirulina.

Notice that the words “ascorbic acid” are not listed in either of these products!

Want to know where to find a complete line of whole food Vitamin C supplements from a variety of whole food plant sources?

Click here for several carefully vetted brands to choose from.

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Category: Natural Remedies
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: Amazon #1 bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (279)

  1. Aaron Robert Matteson via Facebook

    Aug 25, 2012 at 12:15 pm

    3x the amount of vitamin C in broccoli than oranges, add rice and cheese?

    Reply
  2. Smith Lloyd Nikko via Facebook

    Aug 25, 2012 at 12:14 pm

    The real vitamins from fruits and veggies are always better.

    Reply
  3. Dodie Pastores via Facebook

    Aug 25, 2012 at 12:11 pm

    an offshoot of misinformation, i believe. high doses of Vit. C can cause urine precipitation and sedimentation that can lead to renal problems.

    Reply
  4. Stephanie Renee Peña via Facebook

    Aug 25, 2012 at 12:11 pm

    Hmmmm not loving this article.

    Reply
  5. Sharon Pelonio Bernabe via Facebook

    Aug 25, 2012 at 12:11 pm

    how about sodium ascorbate?

    Reply
  6. Rebecca Girouard via Facebook

    Aug 25, 2012 at 12:11 pm

    yes, it would be better if they were turning on their own glutathione….. 1 million times more powerful than Vit. C…and Vit C can’t do it’s job without it!!!

    Reply
    • Malinda Peck

      Oct 17, 2019 at 8:06 pm

      Dr. Schulze’s has a chewable, whole food vitamin-c. It’s organic, non-gmo, no ascorbic acid. I take them and I give them to my children and they love them.

  7. Lydia

    Jul 25, 2012 at 4:42 pm

    Sara,

    Where are you currently getting your Vitamin C ? I have been searching everywhere for pure acerola with no ascorbic acid and I can’t find any. The Nutilite you mentioned a few years ago no longer has acerola.

    Reply
    • anna

      Aug 25, 2012 at 1:59 pm

      Google Amla C Plus by Pure Planet

  8. Joshua

    Feb 23, 2012 at 9:49 pm

    Caldwell’s starter culture has ascorbic acid. Is this something i SHOULD’NT use/consume?

    Reply
  9. Emily

    Feb 16, 2012 at 1:56 pm

    Hi Sarah. Thanks for another great article. How do you feel about Camu Camu? I have a source of powder for it and it is supposed to be one of the highest plant forms of vit c available. We take it in capsules or powder and feel great. Wondering your thoughts. Thanks!

    Reply
  10. Lisa

    Nov 22, 2011 at 7:23 pm

    What is the general consensus of lycospheric Vit C? Is it worth the money? I’m kicking myself after reading this – we’ve spent a small fortune in Emergen-C over the years…

    Reply
    • leighanne

      Nov 22, 2011 at 11:48 pm

      Ya…we did the same with Emergen-C…until my husband got a Kidney stone, and I put it together it was from all the packets of Emergen-C that we were downing all in the name of being healthy! ha! Now we use acerola powder.
      Great post!

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