“Vitamin C is absolutely essential to human survival.
We’ll go into this in much greater detail in the coming pages, but vitamin C is not ascorbic acid, despite what most of us have been led to believe.
Yes, ascorbic acid is one of many nutrients in the vitamin C molecule. I sometimes refer to it as being like the address on an envelope. It gets it there, but doesn’t do anything. We have to open the envelope to see what’s inside.
The whole C molecule is what we really need and, as you’ll see in the coming pages, ascorbic acid alone actually depletes vitamin C from the body and can even be quite dangerous when given to people who are severely vitamin C-deficient.
Vitamin C complex molecules also contain P, K and J factors, the tyrosinase enzyme, at least 14 known bioflavonoids, various ascorbagens, five copper ions, iron, manganese, zinc, selenium, phosphorus, magnesium and yes, ascorbic acid.
Nutrient vitamins like vitamin C are extremely complex molecules and there are probably dozens, if not hundreds, of other nutrients present in this molecule that we have not yet discovered.
The body is completely dependent on the whole vitamin C molecule.
We cannot make it ourselves, so we must get it from our food in order for us to survive. There is no evidence that fragments of that molecule have any of the same effects as the whole C molecules.
It is pretty simple: Biochemically, ascorbic acid is nothing like vitamin C.
It is a pro-oxidant, not an antioxidant, meaning it causes oxidation in the body. Think of rust on a car’s bumper. That’s oxidation. It’s not good when it happens to your cells…
And Here’s the Economic Reality
Almost all “vitamin C” on the market today is ascorbic acid or variations thereof. It says so right on the label in the parentheses, “vitamin C (as ascorbic acid).”
Why?
Ascorbic acid is incredibly cheap to synthesize and/or isolate in a lab, with very little or no natural plant material.
Vitamins cannot be patented, so drug and supplement companies have no interest in producing quality, whole-food products upon which they can expect to make little profit.
They know we have bought into The Vitamin Lie and that most of us believe we must have “vitamin C” to prevent colds and a host of other maladies, so they know we’ll buy it.
What you don’t know is that, at best, the ascorbic acid you bought at the drug store is in reality doing almost nothing good for you. It is actually depleting your total body vitamin C levels.
Ascorbic acid (not C) makes the signs and symptoms of the real vitamin C deficiency worse.
In the treatment of scurvy (called “the hemorrhagic disease” in the past from extreme and prolonged vitamin C deficiency), ascorbic acid will make the problem worse, if not fatal. This is called the “reverse effect.”
Tiny Pieces of Whole Food
“Vitamin C” (as ascorbic acid) is only one of the multitudes of so-called “vitamins” and their derivatives and combination formulas on the market today that qualify as drugs.
They are not natural, no matter what the label says.
These are only tiny pieces of the whole-food that is the source of the vitamin you need. Vitamins are extremely complex molecules, most of them with more components than science has yet been able to detect…
These nutrient components work synergistically. In simple terms, this means that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts: Each little component of a vitamin molecule enhances the function of the others.
It’s another “aha!” moment when we realize how whole-foods are designed to contain all the nutrients our bodies need.
Think of it this way: If you take ascorbic acid or beta-carotene or another single component of a “vitamin,” it’s like taking calcium only when your body needs all 76 ionizing salt-form minerals for survival.
Now that you know the facts about Vitamin C, you need to know about another health mistake… (perhaps the biggest of all) Calcium!
Calcium Builds Strong Bones Right? Well, that’s what we have all been told since we were children…
If you believe that bones are made of calcium, you have subscribed to The Calcium Lie. You’re not alone. Most consumers and, surprisingly, most doctors, believe that bones are made of calcium.
Yet any basic biochemistry textbook will tell you the truth: Bones are made of at least a dozen minerals and we need all of them in perfect proportions in order to have healthy bones and healthy bodies.
Calcium is a necessary mineral for everyone, but to take calcium without all the other minerals or to take one mineral in excess, is inviting disaster, as you’ve learned in the earlier chapters of this book.
Along the same lines, to take part of a vitamin without taking the whole vitamin invites similar disaster.
If you get too much calcium, through food sources or by taking supplements, you set yourself up for an array of negative health consequences, including:
-Obesity
-Diabetes
-Hypertension
-Depression
-Problem Pregnancies
If you are taking calcium, you may actually be weakening your bones. Learn more about the truth about how to build strong bones by reading The Calcium Lie II.
How do you know if your vitamins meet the right requirements?
That’s the $64,000 question considering the artificial need that drug and supplement companies have created for products that aren’t what they promise. Buyer beware! Your health is at stake…”
Discover all of Dr. Robert Thompson’s recommendations for choosing the right vitamins…
And learn MANY more essential insights that turn conventional medical advice on its head and WILL help you fight disease and live longer… in The Calcium Lie II.
Jesse is the co-founder and visionary CEO of The Healthy Back Institute®, the world-leading source of natural back pain solutions. His mission as a former back pain sufferer is to help others live pain free without surgery and pharmaceuticals.
lldiko, The suggestion is to eat your Vit C (fresh Fruits and Veggies) and to only take supplements, with whole food, Vit C… But the larger issue is, much more than that, it about understanding how everything is tied together, and how to restore balance to your body, in many different way…
That said, that is what the book is all about, I have read both books including the original Calcium Lie and Calcium Lie II, and they are both excellent, so much so that the HBI is the only organisation that has permission to give the book away for free, that is unheard of, but as part of Dr Thompson’s mission he want this book to be read by as many people as possible so they can protect them self and help start their healing process…
I will tell you this book is no joke and there are some very disturbing facts about the growing number of people stricken by diabetes, and the number of new autoimmune diseases diagnosed every year, and not to mention, the growing number of children who are diagnosed with life threatening allergies…
Protect your self and your family, understand the facts, and take action now, the book is free, we only ask for a small S/H fee… simply click on the image of the book and that will link you to the order page…
I take one 500mg chewable vitamin C tablet and one Seven Seas 50+ tablet per day – are you telling me that this is killing me ? Your article is terrifying. Why is nobody else being so frightening ?
Do not believe what these “doctors’are saying. They do not even know what a molecule is. The whole article is full of errors and misconceptions rather than scientific fact. The L-Ascorbic Acid is in fact the vitamin C molecule in its pure form. Flavonoids, enzymes, etc are part of the composition of fruits, vegetables and other food that contain vitamin C.
Ignorance!
You will suffer the consequences of it if you do not read the book and examine the references.
Please understand, I thought as you did before I did my homework.
Sodium Ascorbate, Ascorbic acid is a cheep substitute for the real vitamin C molecule. It will deplete the body of the real vitamin C, always. It will not complete even one biochemical process attributed to the C molecule. If you do take these substitutes, you can expect to develop all the problems related to C deficiency I discuss in chapter 7. You are wasting your money and endangering your health for sure. Please get the real whole C molecule, your life and health depend on it.
Blessings,
Dr. Thompson
Ahahaha sorry but this article is so false!!! ascorbic acid in IV infusion has, alone, saved thousand and thousand of lives around the world.. and the saving effects was actually the pro oxidation…you are ignoring the history of medicine and great clinics such as Dr klenner and others…who saved the people lives injecting ascorbic acid and non oranges.. poor medicine is worst than bad medicine.. sorry for my english but I am Italian..
Very good info. What Vit C supplements are good to take? We currently take one that contains Sodium Ascorbate, Ascorbic Acid, Acerola, Citrus Bioflavonoids(37% total bioflavonoids as Hesperidin) & Orange juice powder. This is a very popular brand sold at many health food stores. Are we wasting our money & endangering our health with this? Please let me know. Thanks!
Do not believe what these “doctors’are saying. They do not even know what a molecule is. The whole article is full of errors and misconceptions rather than scientific fact. The L-Ascorbic Acid is in fact the vitamin C molecule in its pure form. Flavonoids, enzymes, etc are part of the composition of fruits, vegetables and other food that contain vitamin C. – See more at: http://losethebackpain.com/blog/2014/10/13/warning-vitamin-c-can-be-fatal/#comment-1125577
For a more in-depth look at Vitamin C and disease, there is an interesting book called, “Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins: Curing the Incurable” by Thomas E. Levy. Here, you will read story after story about how this incredible vitamin assisted in the healing of health issues such as, meningitis, encephalitis, polio… to name a few. Fascinating read if you want to open yourself up to further research on Vitamin C.
Thank you. Your recommendation is a much better, factual reading than the misleading information in this article. A doctor that is uncapable of distinguishing a molecule from a mix of molecules or ingredients shows sheer ignorance
I say this story is crap! Ascorbic acid has been shown in many trials to be beneficient to ill patients. How can one believe this one person. Many Vitamins have been isolated in pure form and been shown to be beneficial in thousands of trials. I think someone is just trying to make some extra money somehow.
This article is inaccurate. What you call vitamin C in here is in fact what is sold as a complex containing several components. The vitamin C molecule is the L enantiomer of Ascorbic acid. That is a molecule. The vitamin C molecule does not contain tyrosinase or flavonoids. Those are other different types of molecules that are added to L- Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C molecule) to complement it.
the fact that the author confuses the terms molecule with a supplement mix is to me an indication of ignorance on the subject. It is pitiful that such deceivers get to so many people…..
While it may be true that there are other factors in plants that have the effect commonly associated with vitamin C, the other contentions here are NOT correct.
There is no such thing as a whole, or complex vitamin C, other than ascorbic acid.
This is because the anti-scury chemical that was clinically determined to prevent scurvy IS ascorbic acid, and that chemical was then referred to as vitamin C.
Thus to pretend that somehow ascorbic acid is only a component of something that we KNOW as a molecule, but haven’t fully identified, is FALSE.
Again, Im not saying there isn”t some unknown or unnamed molecule in foods that does all of what we think is done by Ascorbic acid / vit. C, but that isn’t vitamin C.
In fact Szent-Gyorgi received the nobel price for medicine in the 1930s for this discovery.
This inofrmaiton is easily verifiable online and elsewhere.
Although there are many things i could write concerning this idealistic and sales article, l encourage all to consider just this one FACT: Patient’s in coma’s are kept alive for YEARS on complete nutrition products [like Ensure] with ascorbic acid as their ONLY source of vitamin C, i.e. with no so called vitamin C “complex” in them! Dangerous? Inadequate? You decide!
The comments below from Fraincs, Dr. Baker etc, similarly point out the flaw in the argument of the article.
In addition, if this contention as such were true, the work of the great Linus Pauling wouldn’t be possible. And he should have been mentioned along with Dr. Szent-Gyorgi.
However, at to maybe somewhat square the circle, it is indeed possible that when vitamin C is consumed via plant sources such as citrus fruits, the OTHER molecules present can very well show a benefical synergistic effects.
It’s just simply incorrect to call some sort of complex that INCLUDES Vitamin C something like “ture” or “whole” vitamin C..
Anotehr unadressed issue are is the successful use of intravenous vitamin C to treat cancers. The protocol used for that, esp. the extremely high doses would be anything but disastrous if this argument were true as stated….
If you believe that bones are made of calcium, you have subscribed to The Calcium Lie. You’re not alone. Most consumers and, surprisingly, most doctors, believe that bones are made of calcium.
Thank you!
Interesting and important, of course, but what’s the suggestion, then, what type or brand of vitamin C to take?
Thanks a lot,
Ildiko
lldiko, The suggestion is to eat your Vit C (fresh Fruits and Veggies) and to only take supplements, with whole food, Vit C… But the larger issue is, much more than that, it about understanding how everything is tied together, and how to restore balance to your body, in many different way…
That said, that is what the book is all about, I have read both books including the original Calcium Lie and Calcium Lie II, and they are both excellent, so much so that the HBI is the only organisation that has permission to give the book away for free, that is unheard of, but as part of Dr Thompson’s mission he want this book to be read by as many people as possible so they can protect them self and help start their healing process…
I will tell you this book is no joke and there are some very disturbing facts about the growing number of people stricken by diabetes, and the number of new autoimmune diseases diagnosed every year, and not to mention, the growing number of children who are diagnosed with life threatening allergies…
Protect your self and your family, understand the facts, and take action now, the book is free, we only ask for a small S/H fee… simply click on the image of the book and that will link you to the order page…
Steven H. Co-founder of the HBI
I take one 500mg chewable vitamin C tablet and one Seven Seas 50+ tablet per day – are you telling me that this is killing me ? Your article is terrifying. Why is nobody else being so frightening ?
Do not believe what these “doctors’are saying. They do not even know what a molecule is. The whole article is full of errors and misconceptions rather than scientific fact. The L-Ascorbic Acid is in fact the vitamin C molecule in its pure form. Flavonoids, enzymes, etc are part of the composition of fruits, vegetables and other food that contain vitamin C.
Ignorance!
You will suffer the consequences of it if you do not read the book and examine the references.
Please understand, I thought as you did before I did my homework.
Sodium Ascorbate, Ascorbic acid is a cheep substitute for the real vitamin C molecule. It will deplete the body of the real vitamin C, always. It will not complete even one biochemical process attributed to the C molecule. If you do take these substitutes, you can expect to develop all the problems related to C deficiency I discuss in chapter 7. You are wasting your money and endangering your health for sure. Please get the real whole C molecule, your life and health depend on it.
Blessings,
Dr. Thompson
Ahahaha sorry but this article is so false!!! ascorbic acid in IV infusion has, alone, saved thousand and thousand of lives around the world.. and the saving effects was actually the pro oxidation…you are ignoring the history of medicine and great clinics such as Dr klenner and others…who saved the people lives injecting ascorbic acid and non oranges.. poor medicine is worst than bad medicine.. sorry for my english but I am Italian..
Very good info. What Vit C supplements are good to take? We currently take one that contains Sodium Ascorbate, Ascorbic Acid, Acerola, Citrus Bioflavonoids(37% total bioflavonoids as Hesperidin) & Orange juice powder. This is a very popular brand sold at many health food stores. Are we wasting our money & endangering our health with this? Please let me know. Thanks!
Do not believe what these “doctors’are saying. They do not even know what a molecule is. The whole article is full of errors and misconceptions rather than scientific fact. The L-Ascorbic Acid is in fact the vitamin C molecule in its pure form. Flavonoids, enzymes, etc are part of the composition of fruits, vegetables and other food that contain vitamin C. – See more at: http://losethebackpain.com/blog/2014/10/13/warning-vitamin-c-can-be-fatal/#comment-1125577
Sounds profound and very informative. Thank you.
For a more in-depth look at Vitamin C and disease, there is an interesting book called, “Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins: Curing the Incurable” by Thomas E. Levy. Here, you will read story after story about how this incredible vitamin assisted in the healing of health issues such as, meningitis, encephalitis, polio… to name a few. Fascinating read if you want to open yourself up to further research on Vitamin C.
Thank you. Your recommendation is a much better, factual reading than the misleading information in this article. A doctor that is uncapable of distinguishing a molecule from a mix of molecules or ingredients shows sheer ignorance
thank you for this article (i much prefer reading, i don’t watch the videos). it makes a lot of since.
I say this story is crap! Ascorbic acid has been shown in many trials to be beneficient to ill patients. How can one believe this one person. Many Vitamins have been isolated in pure form and been shown to be beneficial in thousands of trials. I think someone is just trying to make some extra money somehow.
Fully agree!…..I hold a PHD in Chemistry and know this is a most innaccurate, speculative and deceiving article
Thank you for the articles you send. I much prefer the written commentaries rather than the videos which take too much time to watch.
This article is inaccurate. What you call vitamin C in here is in fact what is sold as a complex containing several components. The vitamin C molecule is the L enantiomer of Ascorbic acid. That is a molecule. The vitamin C molecule does not contain tyrosinase or flavonoids. Those are other different types of molecules that are added to L- Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C molecule) to complement it.
the fact that the author confuses the terms molecule with a supplement mix is to me an indication of ignorance on the subject. It is pitiful that such deceivers get to so many people…..
While it may be true that there are other factors in plants that have the effect commonly associated with vitamin C, the other contentions here are NOT correct.
There is no such thing as a whole, or complex vitamin C, other than ascorbic acid.
This is because the anti-scury chemical that was clinically determined to prevent scurvy IS ascorbic acid, and that chemical was then referred to as vitamin C.
Thus to pretend that somehow ascorbic acid is only a component of something that we KNOW as a molecule, but haven’t fully identified, is FALSE.
Again, Im not saying there isn”t some unknown or unnamed molecule in foods that does all of what we think is done by Ascorbic acid / vit. C, but that isn’t vitamin C.
In fact Szent-Gyorgi received the nobel price for medicine in the 1930s for this discovery.
This inofrmaiton is easily verifiable online and elsewhere.
Okay mr. PHD do you know that Vit C is of little use if you don;t have suffuecient Vit D too as one “boosts” the other,
Rigth on! You truly describe what vitamin C is
Although there are many things i could write concerning this idealistic and sales article, l encourage all to consider just this one FACT: Patient’s in coma’s are kept alive for YEARS on complete nutrition products [like Ensure] with ascorbic acid as their ONLY source of vitamin C, i.e. with no so called vitamin C “complex” in them! Dangerous? Inadequate? You decide!
The comments below from Fraincs, Dr. Baker etc, similarly point out the flaw in the argument of the article.
In addition, if this contention as such were true, the work of the great Linus Pauling wouldn’t be possible. And he should have been mentioned along with Dr. Szent-Gyorgi.
However, at to maybe somewhat square the circle, it is indeed possible that when vitamin C is consumed via plant sources such as citrus fruits, the OTHER molecules present can very well show a benefical synergistic effects.
It’s just simply incorrect to call some sort of complex that INCLUDES Vitamin C something like “ture” or “whole” vitamin C..
Anotehr unadressed issue are is the successful use of intravenous vitamin C to treat cancers. The protocol used for that, esp. the extremely high doses would be anything but disastrous if this argument were true as stated….