We are told that supplements are unnecessary and that we get all the vitamins and minerals we need from our food. This is a half-truth, because while we should get all the micronutrients we need from our food, in fact most people fall short of obtaining even the recommended amounts of micronutrients in their diet. Consumption of a typical Western diet is unlikely to provide the required micronutrient levels for many of the essential micronutrients and as most people in the developed nations of the West consume such a diet, most people are not surprisingly deficient in a number of vitamins and minerals. However, the nutritional literature is showing that even high quality diets can not provide adequate intakes of all the essential micronutrients. This relates to the fact that some minerals have become depleted from farmed soils and also relates to improvements in scientific understanding of some nutrients that requires they be supplied in much higher amounts than were previously thought necessary.
However, one nutrient that no one would be deficient in is vitamin C. In the West the population has access to cheap fruit including good sources of vitamin C such as kiwi and citrus fruit, and as such vitamin C deficiencies should not be found. In fact even potatoes contain good amounts of vitamin C and as the average person is reputed to consume over 100 kilograms of potatoes per year in the United Kingdom, vitamin C intakes should be adequate. However, there are examples in the nutritional literature of studies where the plasma levels of subject have been found to be deficient. For example, in one study1 the vitamin C levels of mothers and their 6 month old nursing infants was measured by researchers. The breastfed infant has higher vitamin C blood levels compared to the formula fed infants, despite the formula being supplemented with vitamin C. However, when the vitamin C levels of the mothers were measured 6 of the 200 had blood levels that were indicative of a vitamin C deficiency, despite no obvious symptoms developing.
These results provide more evidence of serious clinical deficiencies of vitamins in Western populations. However, breast fed infants appear to be protected from poor maternal vitamin C status. Dietary records of the mothers allowed researchers to estimate the vitamin C intakes of the mothers at between 48 and 277 mg per day with a mean intake of 138 mg per day. The recommended intake for nursing mothers at the time in Sweden were the study was performed was 100 mg per day. However from the data in the study, the authors calculated that the optimal intake for nursing mothers should be 120 to 170 mg per day. The vitamin C intake correlated with the plasma levels of the mothers, and there was also a correlation between the plasma levels of the mothers and the concentration of vitamin C in the milk. However, the vitamin C status of the infant was not correlated to the vitamin C concentration in the milk. This suggests that infants are well able to maintain high vitamin C plasma levels inspite of inadequate vitamin C status in their mothers.
Dr Robert Barrington’s Nutritional Recommendation: Vitamin C containing foods are plentiful and high vitamin C plasma levels can be maintained on a good quality diet containing fruit and vegetables. However, vitamin C supplements can raise this plasma levels higher. Based on the cheapness of vitamin C in tablets I recommend 500 to 1000 mg per day of supplemental vitamin C per day to boost levels for those who are ill, stressed or physically active. Highly physically active individuals may require more, perhaps up to 3000 mg per day.
RdB
