Yahoo Lifestyle The Best Time to Take Your Vitamin C Supplement
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
We talk about vitamin C a lot, especially when it comes to bolstering our immune systems. But the nutrient is super important for a variety of your body functions. It turns out ascorbic acid (the other name for vitamin C) is key for making collagen, a key protein which connects tissue in your body.
“Vitamin C is best known for its immune-boosting abilities, but it also supports wound healing, enhances iron absorption, and acts as a powerful antioxidant to protect cells from damage,” says Dawn Jackson Blatner, RDN, CSSD, a registered dietitian, food expert and author in Chicago.
If you’re like lots of people, you probably figure a cup of orange juice at breakfast takes care of your daily vitamin C requirement — and you might be right. An 8 ounce serving of OJ contains 124 mg of vitamin C, well above the recommended daily 75mg for women and 90mg for women, as outlined by the National Institutes of Health. (If you’re pregnant, you need 85mg per day, and 120mg if you’re breastfeeding.)
Although it’s readily available in foods and beverages, there could be good reasons for you to take a vitamin C supplement. Your body doesn’t store vitamin C because it’s water-soluble so you need to keep giving it a steady supply. So some people may not get enough from their diet, and smokers are especially at risk for vitamin C deficiency, and need about 35 more mg per day. Those exposed to secondhand smoke may need a boost, too. If you have intestinal malabsorption, a metabolic condition such as cachexia, certain cancers or kidney disease, you may not be getting enough vitamin C, either.
Our registered dietitians in the Good Housekeeping Institute Nutrition Lab review and evaluate every single supplement we recommend in accordance with our dietary supplement methodology. We then have a registered dietitian on our Medical Review Board review each article for scientific accuracy. A supplement should do just that: supplement the diet, not replace high-quality, nutritious food and important healthy lifestyle practices. Check with your healthcare provider before starting any dietary supplement regimen.
Vitamin C deficiency symptoms
Early symptoms of vitamin C deficiency (after weeks or months of lack of consumption) include:
Lack of energy
Feeling weak
Feeling irritable
Weight loss
Muscle pain
Joint pain
After a few months without enough vitamin C, scurvy can develop, which is a severe form of vitamin C deficiency. Symptoms of scurvy include:
Anemia
Bleeding gums that may turn purple
Loose teeth, or teeth falling out
Bleeding under your skin
A skin rash
Wounds that don’t heal or reopen
Rough skin with scales
Leg swelling
A change to your hair’s texture, so it curls in corkscrews.
Does vitamin C reduce your risk of disease?
According to data from Mount Sinai, while vitamin C has not been shown to prevent conditions, it may lower your chances of developing:
High blood pressure,
Gallbladder disease,
Stroke
Some cancers
Atherosclerosis
Osteoarthritis
Asthma
Pre-eclampsia
Age-related macular degeneration
Colds
When is the best time to take vitamin C?
If you’ve got risk factors, or you’ve been diagnosed with vitamin C deficiency, it’s important to talk to your health care provider about a vitamin C supplement, which comes in pill form. If it turns out that a supplement is right for you, you want to make sure it works at optimum level. So when is the best time to take vitamin C? “In my opinion, there is no best time to take vitamin C — usually, whenever you remember,” says Anita Mirchandani MS, RD, CDN, a dietitian and personal trainer in New York City.
Taking vitamin C with breakfast could be a good idea, though. “It’s usually easier on the stomach if you take it with food,” says Laura Iu, RD, a certified intuitive eating counselor and owner of Laura iu Nutrition in New York City. “Vitamin C can also help with immune function, fatigue and iron absorption if you take it at meal times.”
Also, you can ask your doctor if it’s okay to take vitamin C at the same time you take other supplements, for best results. “If you’re iron deficient and need to take iron, (you could) take it with vitamin C to enhance the iron absorption,” says Mirchandani.
What’s the right way to take vitamin c?
“Since vitamin C is water-soluble, all you need is water to take it,“ says Blautner. “For best absorption, aim for 500mg at a time," she says.
"If you’re taking higher doses, consider splitting them up throughout the day or choosing a liposomal form of vitamin C, which has better absorption at higher doses. Aim to not go above 2 g/day (2,000 mg/day) because that’s considered the safe upper limit.”
Again, talk with your health care provider to know the exact dosage info that’s right for you. According to Mayo Clinic, taking too much vitamin C can lead to diarrhea, nausea, heartburn, stomach cramps, vomiting and headache.
Foods packed with vitamin c
Mayo Clinic also notes that for most people, a healthy diet alone can supply enough vitamin C. “Aim to get at least 90 mg per day of vitamin C from food,” Blautner recommends. She suggests the following excellent food choices:
Red bell pepper (½ cup, raw): 95 mg (106% daily value)
Orange (1 medium): 70 mg (78% daily value)
Kiwi (1 medium): 64 mg (71% daily value)
Broccoli (1/2 cup cooked): 51mg (57% daily value)
Strawberries (½ cup): 49 mg (54% daily value)
The bottom line
It’s more important to get enough vitamin C than it is to worry when to take your supplement. As Iu sums it up: “The best time to take vitamin C is all about what works for you.”
You Might Also Like
