Vitamin C IS Ascorbic Acid

[Guest guest]

Vitamin C IS Ascorbic Acid

I did a lot of research about vitamin C this morning, and discovered that I was

wrong about vitamin C requiring bioflavonoids, rutin, etc. in order to be

utilized and absorbed in the body. However, in my defense, I believed the Weston

A. Price Foundation about this, but unfortunately they are wrong.

This is from The Nature of Vitamin C, which is The Position of the Vitamin C

Foundation on Natural Vitamin C and so-called Vitamin C-complex:

http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/NaturalC.htm

They are referring to Cowan, MD, who is on the Board of Directors at

WAPF, and Sally Fallon at WAPF - see this list of the Board at WAPF:

http://www.westonaprice.org/board-of-directors.html

" There is a growing school of thought among an unlikely foe of ing - the

natural purists who proclaim that only vitamins gleaned from plants are the real

vitamins. The views of these alternative healers, as summarized by authors

S. Cowan, MD and Sally Fallon in their recent book The Fourfold Path to

Healing (2004) is that the real vitamin C is " actually a complex of nutrients

that includes bio-flavonoids, rutin, tyrosine, copper and other substances known

and unknown. " (Cowan and others 2004 p. 21)

Cowan and Fallon even go so far as to say in this book that " ascorbic acid is

not a food for us; that which it preserves is our food. " (Cowan and others 2004

p. 21) Too much " synthetic " ascorbic acid is harmful, the naturalists assert,

especially when not accompanied by the vitamin C-complex. "

If the naturalists are right about the C-complex being the " real " vitamin C,

then Linus ing was wrong in his reviews and analyses of more than 60 years

of vitamin C science. There is massive scientific support for Linus ing's

position that ascorbic acid is vitamin C. No scientific basis has been found for

the existence of the C-complex or that such a complex can cure scurvy without

ascorbic acid present. This assertion is proven every day in hospitals around

the world. Comatose patients are kept alive using ascorbic acid only. There are

no hospitals keeping patients on a feeding tube alive with a vitamin C-complex. "

Here's another quote: " Linus ing and other biochemists explain that there is

no difference between a so-called " synthetic " and a " natural " vitamin molecule.

Biologically identical, or bio-identical, molecules are indistinguishable from

those synthesized by plants or animals. In the blood serum, the origin of

bio-identical molecules is thought to be of little significance. Receptors on

the surface of animal cells control the uptake of individual molecules

regardless of how or why these molecules appear in the blood stream. Any

complexes of molecules present in food generally disassociate [are broken apart

or broken down] during digestion. " [in other words, chemically changed.]

I also discovered that:

1) At the cells AA (ascorbic acid) is changed into a substance called DHAA

(dehydroascorbic acid), which is more quickly transported across the cell

membrane. Once inside the cells DHAA is reduced back to AA.

Therefore, the form of vitamin C in the cells is ascorbic acid.

2) Vitamin C is a generic name for all compounds that exhibit the same biologic

activity as AA (ascorbic acid) in the body. Biologic activity means: Having an

effect on or causing a reaction in living tissue. Consequently, the term

[vitamin C] includes both AA and DHAA.

Since ascorbic acid is in the tablet I recommend it is still beneficial, even

though the bioflavonoids, rutin, etc. in it aren't necessary.

The best in health, Bee