You probably don’t need to run to the supplement aisle to buy vitamin C supplements.
sales supplement skyrocketed in 2020Y analysts expect the trend to continue in the decade. Vitamin C supplements, in particular, exploded in popularity, as Nutritional Perspective reported sales increased by 61.8% in 2020.
But data and interviews with experts suggest that very few Americans need to take vitamin C supplements, particularly those that have many more milligrams than the daily recommendation. Even in cases where a diet could result in low vitamin C, experts told Insider not to rush to the supplement aisle, but instead eat more fruits and vegetables.
“If people really are consuming all the vitamin C they are buying, then there are probably a lot of people who are over-consuming vitamin C,” Kirstin Vollratha registered dietitian and professor at the University of Houston, told Insider.
Most Americans are not deficient in vitamin C
In 2018, the Food and Drug Administration ceased to require that companies list the amount of vitamin C in food products because deficiency of the nutrient is “rare today.”
About 6% of the US population is deficient in vitamin C, according to 2021 National Health Survey and Nutrition Screening. The survey, which included more than 6,000 participants, found no association between age, race, gender, or obesity and vitamin C deficiency, although the problem was more prevalent among smokers.
An independent team of preventive medicine experts recently said that not enough evidence showing that taking dietary supplements can prevent cardiovascular disease.
The team did not recommend that healthy adults take supplements, although the advice did not apply to pregnant people, the chronically ill, children and those with diagnosed deficiencies.
Certain diets can lead to low vitamin C intake, but dietitians recommend getting it from food rather than supplements
Americans who eat a balanced diet are likely to get enough vitamin C through foods such as potatoes, apples, tomatoes, bell peppers and oranges, Vollrath said. A red bell pepper or a third cup of orange juice provides more than enough recommended daily vitamin C, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Some fad diets can result in lower levels of vitamin C, Philip Hujoel, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington, told Insider. People on meat-eating, ketogenic, or low-carb diets who eat more meat than fruits and vegetables may be at risk of not reaching their recommended daily amount.
But running to the supplement aisle may not be the best solution for low vitamin C levels.
Hujoel said a “big problem” is that supplements tend to have more vitamin C than is needed.
popular brands like Emergen-C Y made by nature tout supplements with 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C, well above the country 75mg recommendation for men and recommendation of 90 mg for women. A 2013 class action lawsuit alleged that the manufacturer of Emergen-C “misleadingly” marketed its product as an immune system stimulant without evidence. The company denied the allegations, but solved the suit for $6.45 million. (Emergen-C and Nature Made did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.)
Taking extra vitamin C won’t make a person healthier, Vollrath said, because the body only uses the amount of vitamin C it needs to function and excretes the rest. He explained that when a person consumes vitamin C, the nutrient is absorbed in the intestines and reaches the cells to help with things like make proteins and hormones.
The body will store some vitamin C in the cells, but the kidneys will filter the blood and excrete the excess vitamin C in the urine.
So spending a ton of money on high-dose vitamin C ends up being “very expensive piss,” Vollrath said.
Vollrath said the most cost-effective move is to add more vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables to your diet if you think you’re not getting enough. Food also offers biochemicals and fiber that pills can’t.
“It would be difficult to make a supplement that mimics the exact nutritional profile of these foods and provides the same health benefits,” Emma Laing, a clinical professor at the University of Georgia and registered dietitian, previously told Insider.
Research does not indicate that taking vitamin C supplements will prevent a cold
Some people take vitamin C supplements when they feel a cold coming on, but research indicates that the nutrient itself can’t prevent a cold, Vollrath said.
A 2013 revision of placebo-controlled trials found no evidence that vitamin C supplementation prevents colds.
the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health He said that vitamin C may slightly decrease the duration and severity of a cold, but studies in which participants take the supplement after they have contracted the virus show that vitamin C does not improve symptoms. Vollrath said that vitamin C should already be present in your body before a cold starts to lessen its severity.
“Vitamin C may be useful in combination with
zinc
it may help lessen the severity and duration of a cold, but it won’t keep you from getting sick,” Vollrath said. “And vitamin C alone hasn’t been shown to have much of an effect.”
