In the documentary food inc...they basically implied ascorbic acid is a derivative of gmo corn. It is?

Not necessarily gmo corn, but yep, commercial ascorbic acid is made from corn.

An alternative source is sago palm.

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Ascorbic acid is unstable. In my opinion, that makes it worthless; even for its shelf life.

It is better to supplement with vitamin C from rose hips or acerola cherry. You can even find this inexpensively from Wal-Mart.

Far better than any of the above, - amla.
https://www.raysahelian.com/amla.html
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supple...BERRY&source=3

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- Jim

�Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.� Sir Winston Churchill

Thanks for the link, Jim! I guess what I'm taking has been the wrong Vit C.
1000mg capsules - at least 2 daily from Solgar. Listed as L-Ascorbic acid.
Also says free of Corn, yeast,wheat,soy, dairy products, preservatives, artificial flavors/colors. www.solgar.com

It is not the wrong vitamin C. It is just that you don't really know what MG it is after a while. It is also heat sensitive as well. I'd say it is probably already well degraded by the time it hits the market shelves. It rapidly oxidizes in aqueous systems.

Here is an interesting article on the stability of vitamin C. https://www.xpressnet.com/bhealthy/vitaminc.html

Funny you should feel this way considering all the hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of positive studies done on ascorbic acid and the work of Linus Pauling.

If things were urgent I would go for the new lipsomal vitamin c from Livon Labs.

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I'm in total agreement with Arrowwind09. Ascorbic acid is a good source of vitamin C. I'm also in agreement that liposomol vitamin C is the creme de la creme of C.

Rose hips and acerola C is extremely expensive. The vitamin C advertised to contain either of these is what is called pixie dust. A little bit added to a vat justifys the claim on the label that it contains it.

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Doctors give drugs of which they know little,
into bodies, of which they know less,
for diseases of which they know nothing at all.
Voltaire

If ascorbic acid comes from GMO corn, how can that be a good thing?

Try here. Bulk organic rose hips. Does not even require as much mg to match ascorbic acid. https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/bulkherb/r.php#h_r_hp

I agree that acerola is somewhat more expensive. https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/bul....php#h_a_ace_p

Amla (indian gooseberry) is 12 times more powerful than ascorbic acid; so not much is required. https://www.vedaliving.com/advanced_s...0fje41&x=0&y=0

I suspect that they were careful to use a specifically manufactured and preserved ascorbic acid in their thousand clinical trials. Much like the iodine doctors did in theirs by creating Iodoral to control the trial exactly to their specifications.

But for regular home users, it depends upon how and when they use and store it. Although the following quote regards the storage of ascorbic acid for administration to patients, it is another reason why I don't like multivitamins. Yes, I know the supplement can be by itself; but most take it with food or other supplements. I'd rather use a whole food source of vitamin C.

I agree with jfh that AA is unstable and worthless.

I've been doing alot of reading on synthetic vitamins lately. My problem with ascorbic acid is that even though it has been discovered that AA mimics the same molecular structure as its natural counterpart, it doesn't change the fact that it's still merely the incomplete, iscolated chemical compound version of Vitamin C found in foods. Simply, there are no accompanying vitamins and minerals. The body ends up having to provide all the other components AA is lacking in order for it to be absorbed. Robbing peter to pay paul! How is that benefical to the body? It seems to me that it would eventually cause deficiencies.

In the food version, all the bioavailability components are available.

At least by supplementing with the acerola cherry version, it contains other vitamins (bioflavonoids, tyrosinase & rutin) to help lift some of the burden from the body having to provide.

The problem is simply you can't get enough natural c every day. The best form is camu camu, but even with that, 500 mg would be the size of a golf ball, so imagine taking 20,000 mg per day... just not possible.

Pauling showed us that ascorbic acid is not only beneficial in large doses, but is completely safe. Remember, he took straight ascorbic acid, not the more gentle ester C, nor did he take Quercetin, rose hips, camu, acai, etc.

To say ascorbic acid is worthless is wrong. It is a super star.

Chemist here (and I post on this board so you know I am not a big pharma or GMO fan). But Vit C in the form of straight synthesized ascorbic acid is ok (IMO). The thing you haveto watch out for is synthetic Vit E. If you look at the bottle and it says l-tocopherol or l tocophrol acetate it is natural. If it says d,l-tocopherol or d,l-tocopherol acetate it is synthetic. The natural works much better.

If you are talking about my remark, "Ascorbic acid is unstable. In my opinion, that makes it worthless; even for its shelf life.", check it for yourself. Try this standard high school test. Take some ascorbic acid. Separately subject it to heat, light, and moisture. Then follow this test. https://www.cforyourself.com/Overview...y/c_tests.html

In this context, I am not sure of the quality of ascorbic acid on the market shelf, after the delivery vehicle, or on my own shelf. If I ever have to have IV, I expect them to use well protected ascorbic acid. And in this context of curing ills, ascorbic acid really is a superstar.

Also, excessive ascorbic acid will be broken down to oxalic acid, which can be a problem for people with kidney problems.

He died of cancer....