Vitamin C is an important water soluble antioxidant for humans. Vitamin C is able to lower levels of oxidative stress in humans and this may explain its health benefits. Most animals can produce their own vitamin C, whereas humans cannot. This makes animal research on vitamin C difficult to interpret with regard to humans. However, a number of interesting animal studies have investigated the effects of vitamin C on weight loss in animals. Administration of vitamin C supplements to animals results in reductions in body weight through decreases in the retroperitoneal and subcutaneous fat depots. Investigation into the mechanisms by which vitamin C could achieve this have shown that vitamin C may alter gene regulation in a number of ways and this may include steroidogenesis and lipid metabolism, both of which could influence fat deposition. In animals it has therefore been shown that without any need to alter energy intake, vitamin C is able to lower fat mass through unknown mechanisms.
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