When we get a cold what is the first thing we grab – some vitamin C? You might have a bottle of ascorbic acid on your shelf thinking that is vitamin C and will help your cold, but you are misled…
Vitamin C is legally defined as ascorbic acid and folic acid as pterolyglutamic acid. As found in foods, vitamin C is more than just one molecule and to function properly in the body it needs more than just ascorbic acid. Tyrosinase is a co-factor that is essential for the production of the oxidative burst in white blood cells that destroys engulfed pathogens. surrounding the core of tyrosinase are the bioflavoinoids and P factors. These support production and maintenance of collagen and elastin and another component, vitamin K and hemoglobin production co-factors (J factors) were also needed to function properly.
When plants product vitamin C complex they enclose the active constituents with a shell of ascorbic acid being a functional component of the vitamin complex. But, ascorbic acid only comprises five to eight percent of the actual vitamin complex. It is actually a marker molecule used to identify vitamin C activity and it’s presence in a food source. By legal definition isolated ascorbic acid is not vitamin C.
Ascorbic acid is the protective shell that also can function as an antioxidant but must be paired with its co-factors and other synergistic components to maximize the utilization in the body. Ascorbic acid is a single, naked molecule synthesized by processing glucose (corn syrup mostly from GMO corn) with sulfuric acid to produce the hexuronic acid form. It is not a natural whole food vitamin. It is a synthetic.
Synthetic vitamins can help initially because our cells can take a naked molecule and draw the necessary co-factors from other areas of the body. But once the co-factors are depleted the synthetic vitamin can no longer work reducing the efficacy of the substance.The return or worsening of the symptom the ascorbic acid was taken for is viewed as a reoccurrence of the original condition whereas it is actually the body’s depletion of the co-factors so the synthetic vitamin can no longer be processed. Because it is now deficient in that vitamin, even more serious conditions can arise. Another reason why synthetic vitamins cannot produce as good results as natural whole food vitamins is that the cells vibrate at a specific frequency and they don’t recognize the frequency of the synthetic vitamin so won’t process them efficiently.
So – next time you get a cold, don’t reach for ascorbic acid. Look for a whole foods vitamin C complex with all the co-factors still in tact.
-excerpted from “Whole Food Vitamins” by Jody Kincaid, DVM, ND, CVA, IVC Journal, Summer 2013
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