When you say vitamin C, what's the first thing that comes to mind? I bet it's rose hips, citrus fruits, or even sea buckthorn. What about l-ascorbic acid? Although it's just another name for the same substance, many people think of a lab with flasks and all sorts of chemical apparatus producing something unnatural.
That's why today we're going to look at what form of vitamin C is best and what, on the other hand, you're just throwing money away on.
How good are vitamin C supplements?
As the expert sites show, l- ascorbic acid was first synthesized from peppers. Today, however, a much cheaper source is used - cornstarch. This is then further processed by various chemical processes and, using chemicals, the product sold as vitamin C stands at the end of this process, which we describe in detail below.
This is not a problem, however, because the artificially created vitamin C molecule is exactly the same as the ascorbic acid molecule found in any fruit or vegetable.
But what is definitely important to remember is the fact that if you prefer natural sources to pills, you will not only get vitamin C into your body, but also from rutins, factors J, K and P, bioflavonoids or ascorbinogen. And if you go into a more detailed examination of the various scientific publications, you will find that the threeonly such bioflavonoids protect l-ascorbic acid from oxidation, thereby aiding absorption.
See our vitamin C comparison
How is l-ascorbic acid prepared?
As we outlined in the introduction, the raw material for the production of l-ascorbic acid is corn. But let's look at its production process in more detail in the next few steps:
- Making cornstarch from corn
- Hydrolysis of starch - During hydrolysis, water is chemically consumed, which This is mainly used to break down complex sugars into simple/monomers. Specifically, in the production of l-ascorbic acid, this means that complex starch is converted into monosaccharide using high temperature and the action of enzymes to become D-glucose (= a naturally occurring conformation of glucose).
- Hydrogenation - Here again, a little digression is in order for the not so chemically inclined reader. Hydrogenation is the addition of hydrogen to the original compound. Well, if you add double-bonded hydrogen to glucose with the chemical composition C6H12O6, at the end of the reaction you have sorbitol (i.e. C6H14O6).
- Fermentation - During fermentation, the process by which carbohydrates become energy-poor substances with the help of enzymes, sorbitol becomes l-sorbose
- Reaction with acetone - As unbelievable as it may sound, sorbose does indeed mix with acetone, which is known for its ability to dissolve organic matter. To make matters worse, sulfuric acid is also involved in the process. The resulting product of such a reaction is called 2,3:4,6-bis-(O-isopropylidene)-α-L-sorbofuranos.
- Oxidation - The aforementioned intermediate product of vitamin C production is probably not familiar to any of you. So in the next step it is allowed to react with potassium permanganate in an alkaline environment, then washed and dried to produce l-gluconic acid.
- Hydrolysis followed by crystallization - While this manufacturing process may have seemed endless, hydrolysis followed by crystallization forms the last point. The l-gluconic acid is first mixed with hydrochloric acid to produce raw l-ascorbic acid. This then goes through a crystallisation process where it is purified and ground into a crystalline powder sold under the name vitamin C.
Doesn't this all sound like some kind of mad science fiction to you? We're not surprised. But all this information is readily available on foreign websites or in professional publications. To give you a closer look at this manufacturing process, we used the book Pharmacochemistry (a preview of the specific page is available onlineso you can check all the statements).
Is vitamin C from fruit better compared to supplements?
Although the l-ascorbic acid found in supplements is exactly the same as the vitamin C molecule in fruit, there are scientific studies comparing the bioavailability of this substance obtained from fruit or from supplements. And what are the conclusions? For our purposes, the most important thing is that:
- After consuming a supplement, the maximum concentration of this vitamin in the blood plasma is reached after only two hours. In the case of fruit, this time was significantly delayed.
- The absorption of vitamin C obtained from (fresh) orange juice is the same as from supplements.
- The bioavailability of l-ascorbic acid from raw and cooked vegetables can vary greatlyin the case of cooked broccoli, the availability is up to 20% better compared to raw broccoli.
- Vitamin C is better absorbed from orange juice than from grapefruit juice.
So what is the best vitamin C?
As always, there is no clear answer as to which form to prefer. While some flavonoids maximize vitamin C utilization, others impair it. So natural sources may or may not be the better choice. Personally, I recommend combining the two sources; water with lemon is just as effective in fighting colds as a supplement containing ascorbic acid directly. And what specific supplement do you recommend?
Do you have any questions about today's topic, or do you just want to contribute your own experiences? Feel free to contact us in the comments!
Why can you trust us?
Hey! Hey! I'm Mirek and I've been working at World Fitness almost since the beginning, except for a small break. But before that I lived only in the gym for a few years, doing deadlifts and power triathlon, going to competitions and winning a few medals.
Probably the one I value the most is the national record in the WUAP federation. But besides working out, I was also interested in food and supplements, I liked to enjoy my free timeI used to read different researches and professional books in my free time to know as much as possible.