Oh those sneaky sneaky food people. Ascorbic Acid isn't Vitamin C!

So many foods and beverages now a day promote 100% Vitamin C (for example, McDonalds Apple Juice). However, our reading skills need to come into play and look at the ingredients. "Rich" and "Fortified" are lovely words of propoganda to get you thinking it's Vitamin C in your diet, meanwhile it's anything but. If the ingredient is Ascorbic Acid, then you are really not getting the Vitamin C you think you are getting. From what I've been reading, the name is actually Latin for anti-scurvy, however it's really not a vitamin as well as does nothing for scurvy.

The controversy began in the 1930's when Vitamin C was first discovered. If you ask the medical community they'll say vitamin C is nothing more than ascorbic acid, it being the isolated "Vitamin". Doctor Royal Lee, considered the world's greatest nutritionist, was, as far back as the 1940's, providing evidence that the anti-infection Vitamin C complex does not consist simply of ascorbic acid; it isn't even part of it.

Ascorbic acid is what protects and preserves acting as the "shell" of the vitamin C complex. The discoverer of Vitamin C, Dr. Albert Szent Gyorgi, stated that ascorbic acid was not the active anti-scurvy factor of the C complex. Dr. Gyorgi reported that with the isolated ascorbic acid he could not stop the various characteristics of scurvy which were reliably cured with the so-called "impure" vitamin C from food sources.

A comment I liked was "Using just the ascorbic acid, "the preserver of the C complex," would be like preparing a meal and eating the plate. Ascorbic acid does not provide therapeutic benefits without its synergists."...those synergists being the whole Vitamin C Complex

So it seems if you are looking for Vitamin C to get you healthy, look for the Vitamin C complex pills, not the fake vitamin c that the FDA has no problem with passing off as Vitamin C, known as Ascorbic Acid. Some foods that are a great source of real Vitamin c are

# 1 Large Red Bell Pepper: 283mg
# 1 cup of Blackcurrants: 202mg
# 1 Guava: 165mg
# 1 large Kiwifruit: 89mg
# ? cup Broccoli: 58mg
# 1 cup of Kale: 53mg