This article may prove why some Vitamin C pills/chewables work and some don't for the same people?
"PURITY:
A number of companies produce Vitamin C with varying degrees of purity levels of L-Ascorbic Acid. However, in our research, our company was only able to come up with one producer that manufactures L-Ascorbic Acid at an average consistent 99.9% purity level. In turn, we found only a few companies using the 99.9% L-Ascorbic Acid when producing Vitamin C pills for sale to the public. Additionally, most all of the pill manufacturers add ingredients to the L-Ascorbic Acid with the most prevalent being rose hips, along with other so-called nutrients. In the manufacture of pills, there are a variety of substances added, such as starch, sucrose, talc, povidone, and a battery of other foreign body substances to bind the pills together. We have found that the average make-up of a pill being manufactured today, for anything, is comprised of at least 25% pill fillers which hold the pill together. These pill filler substances are comprised, for the most part, of products and chemicals not normally ingested into the human body as food. These pill fillers are not in the best interest of the recipient, and may very well be detrimental to overall health in the long term. They, in themselves, may cause side effects. As Vitamin C is taken by many people in doses of 1,000 mg per day, they would be ingesting 250 mg of pill fillers, or when taking 10,000 mg per day, ingesting 2,500 mg of pill fillers, on average. Pill filler purities go virtually uncontrolled by our F.D.A.. Pill fillers added to Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) can, and usually do, cause the Ascorbic Acid to break down and "go off". The same instance occurs in a majority of cases when so-called nutrients are added. This further causes side effects and causes a less beneficial effect from the Ascorbic Acid.
STABILITY OF VITAMIN C:
Discount houses and mail order firms, as well as the majority of pharmacies, sell Vitamin C under all kinds of names an at very competitive prices. The producers of these pills range from people in their garage producing pills to legitimate companies. Our company purchased, at random, 1,000 mg Vitamin C tablets from three different nationwide discount stores and pharmacies, different brands. We also purchased mail order Vitamin C powder from two different so-called legitimate producers selling powder to the public. We purchased Vitamin C with additives and without. All five samples of Vitamin C proved unstable and "went off" in a relatively short period of time, while effectiveness decreased accordingly. The very worst product purchased came from a large nationwide discount chain and was produced by a laboratory in the western part of the U.S.. This Vitamin C tested had no additives, other than pill fillers at 250 mg per tablet. Our investigation showed the product was pilled in or about January 1991. By June of 1991, the product was proving unstable. By December of 1992, anyone even looking at the product would have thrown it out, but stamped on the label of this unstable Vitamin C was an expiration date of July 1995. L-Ascorbic Acid at 99.9% purity is, in itself, an extremely stable substance subject only to high moisture. In our testing at 99.9% purity, under normal conditions at room temperature, in an unsealed bottle being opened twice daily for 2 1/2 years the product proved to be extremely stable.
PURITY INCREASES EFFECTIVENESS:
In most cases (with very few exceptions), our company has found that the purer the active ingredient is in products, whether it be a pharmaceutical or a vitamin, the more potent and stable the product remains, and thus the more effective the product is. In the few cases where active ingredients, when extracted or synthesized, prove to be unstable at their highest purity levels, our research indicates that when a stabilizing compound is used and kept at IT's highest purity level, the original active ingredient is much more stable than if less pure stabilizing compounds were used. What is being done by the producers of Vitamin C is that the product is so competitive in pricing that many manufacturers cut quality (purity) to produce a cheap, less pure product, without informing the consumer that the product is much less effective, unbeknownst to the consumer. Not only are the general public and doctors unaware of the L and D sides of Vitamin C, as well as reduced effectiveness when added to juices, they are "also" unaware of the effectiveness regarding purity ratio of the L-Ascorbic Acid. Purity levels are not required by the F.D.A. on labels of any food products, vitamins or pharmaceuticals. That, in itself, is detrimental to the public in most instances. The public, and a majority of doctors, do not realize that it takes considerably less L-Ascorbic Acid at 99.9% purity to produce the same effects as a good deal more of the less pure, less stable Vitamin C offered in most markets today. The price of Vitamin C (L-Ascorbic Acid) at 99.9% purity may be higher; however, when it comes to the effectiveness, it may prove to be cheaper, as the amount ingested is considerably less, as our research revealed. "
It is possible to buy the powder which is nearly always pure Vitamin C I've noticed on some websites.. you just mix it with water.
Surely that would be better than ingesting lots of filler & unstable / unknown levels of Vitamin C?
Just throwing more out there for discussion/interest.
Pete
