Vitamins Information
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Vitamin C: Tips For Increasing Your Intake
A new RDA?
According to a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the National Institutes of Health is taking another look at the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamin C. The current RDA for vitamin C is 60 milligrams per day—about the amount you get from one orange. Due to recent findings on the potential health benefits of this wonder vitamin, the NIH is now considering boosting the RDA to somewhere between 100 and 200 milligrams per day, two to three times the current recommendation.
Why all the hype?
Vitamin C has long been known for its value as an antioxidant. Antioxidants are natural compounds found in many of the foods we eat. The most well known antioxidants are vitamin C, selenium, beta carotene and vitamin E. Antioxidants work by inhibiting toxic substances in the body (also known as "free radicals") which may lead to the development of cancers, heart disease and the aging process. There has been a strong correlation between diets high in fruits and vegetables (which are rich in antioxidants) and reduced risk of chronic diseases. Vitamin C may account for much of this protection. However, we are also finding numerous other compounds within fruits and vegetables, collectively called "phytochemicals", that may also play a preventative role. Phytochemicals are defined simply as chemicals found in plants. They occur naturally in fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds. These substances, many of which also have an antioxidant effect, may protect our bodies from cellular damage that can lead to cancer and other chronic diseases.
Due to the strong correlation between diets abundant in fruits and vegetables and disease prevention, The National Cancer Institute launched the "5-A-Day" program. The basis of this campaign promotes the intake of a minimum of five fruits and vegetables daily as a good defense against cancer and other diseases. A specific recommendation of this program is to include vitamin C rich fruits and vegetables in the diet each day since vitamin C is a particularly well-researched antioxidant. The mainstay of the program, however, is that by eating five servings of produce daily we can easily take in not just a good dose of vitamin C, but the minimum amount of protective plant chemicals shown to be effective in reducing risk of chronic diseases. Remember, five is the minimum amount. In the case of fruits and veggies it's definitely a situation where more is better!
High Fructose Corn Syrup Linked to Liver Scarring
FRIDAY, March 19 (HealthDay News) -- New research links consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, the extremely popular sweetener that shows up in food products from ketchup to jelly, to liver damage in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
It's not clear if the sweetener directly causes liver scarring, also known as fibrosis, but those who consumed more of the sweetener appeared to have more liver scarring, according to the report released online in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the journal Hepatology.
"We have identified an environmental risk factor that may contribute to the metabolic syndrome of insulin resistance and the complications of the metabolic syndrome, including liver injury," Dr. Manal Abdelmalek, associate professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterology/hepatology at Duke University Medical Center and leader of a team of scientists behind the new research, said in a university news release.
The researchers examined the medical records of 427 adults with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), along with questionnaires the patients completed about their diets.
Only 19 percent of adults with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease said they never drank beverages containing the sweetener; 29 percent did so every day, the investigators found.
"Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is present in 30 percent of adults in the United States," Abdelmalek said in the news release. "Although only a minority of patients progress to cirrhosis, such patients are at increased risk for liver failure, liver cancer, and the need for liver transplant. Unfortunately, there is no therapy for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. My hope is to see if we can find a factor, such as increased consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, which if modified, can decrease the risk of liver disease."
Representatives of the corn refining industry took issue with the findings, noting that the study involved a wide range of sources of fructose, not just beverages sweetened with high-fructose corn sugar.
Furthermore, "fructose has not been proven to be a cause of NAFLD in humans, and NAFLD subjects are compromised individuals with significant health problems which have very little to do with fructose intake," according to a news release from the Corn Refiners Association released late Friday.
"Moreover, associative studies of this kind are widely judged to be of low scientific value when trying to establish cause-and-effect, data from studies like this that are dependent on recollection of the study subjects are notoriously imprecise, and these studies are full of confounding variables and exceedingly difficult to control," the CRA added.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, also known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.
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