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Top 5 Common Food Sources of Vitamin C
Looking to get more mg of vitamin C (aka ascorbic acid) in your diet? Look no further! My team and I have crunched the numbers and did all the math to determine the top 5 common food sources of vitamin C, per serving. (Spoiler alert – oranges and orange juice didn’t make the cut!) Getting enough vitamin C as part of a healthy balanced diet is important since a large collection of studies show that getting nutrients from dietary supplements doesn’t improve health outcomes compared to getting nutrients from foods! It’s also worth noting that vitamin C reaches maximum absorption (100%) when ingested at doses up to 200 mg at a time so it’s smart to spread vitamin C intake throughout the day instead of eating all your vitamin-C-rich foods (or vitamin C supplements or a multivitamin with a high dose of vitamin C) in one sitting! And, since vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, it doesn’t get stored internally which means we need to ingest it regularly.
| Rank | Food | Nutrivore Score | Serving Size (Raw) | Vitamin C (mg/serving) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guavas, Common | 761 | 1 cup | 376.7 | 419 |
| 2 | Kiwi, Average1 | 476 | 1 cup, sliced | 228.6 | 254 |
| 3 | Persimmons, Japanese | 537 | 1 cup, diced | 212.5 | 236 |
| 4 | Currants, European Black | 811 | 1 cup | 202.7 | 225 |
| 5 | Tomato Juice, Canned, w/o salt added | 1568 | 1 cup | 170.3 | 189 |
Want to know more about this important vitamin for our immune system including what vitamin C does in the body, how much vitamin C we need, what happens if we have low vitamin C levels or if we get too much, and even more awesome food sources of vitamin C? Keep reading to learn all there is to know!
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What Is Vitamin C and What Does It Do?
Vitamin C is an absolute rock star when it comes to our health! Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin with potent antioxidant activity: it’s vital for the protection of many molecules in the body (including proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and the nucleic acids RNA and DNA) against oxidative stress, i.e., damage generated by free radicals and reactive oxygen species. Vitamin C is also involved in recycling other antioxidants, such as vitamin E (which vitamin C helps regenerate from its oxidized form), making it supportive of antioxidant status even beyond its own direct activity.
Vitamin C is also an essential cofactor for a number of enzymes — particularly those involved in collagen biosynthesis (which is essential for the health of our bones, joints, teeth, blood vessels, skin and eyes), carnitine biosynthesis, neuropeptide production, tyrosine metabolism, histone demethylation, and DNA demethylation. So, vitamin C is essential for the biological functions that rely on these enzymes, including wound healing, energy production (particularly, the transport of long-chain fatty acids into mitochondria, which carnitine plays a critical role in), the formation of neurotransmitters (including dopamine and serotonin), and the formation of catecholamines (including cortisol, epinephrine [adrenaline] and norepinephrine [noradrenaline], which is how vitamin C regulates the stress response).
Vitamin C is also involved in immunity through several avenues. In vitro, vitamin C has been shown to stimulate the production and function of white blood cells such as lymphocytes, phagocytes, and neutrophils; these cells also accumulate high levels of vitamin C as protection against oxidative damage, which is particularly important for phagocytes, since one of their roles is to release reactive oxygen species to kill pathogens (and therefore they need vitamin C to protect against self-inflicted damage!). Additionally, vitamin C stimulates cellular motility, phagocytosis (the cellular ingestion of bacteria and other particles), and chemotaxis (the chemically-stimulated movement of cells towards more beneficial environments). And, vitamin C can enhance the capacity of neutrophils to kill microbes while also stimulating the proliferation and differentiation of T- and B-lymphocytes.
Higher intakes of vitamin C are linked to lower risk of heart disease, some forms of cancer, type 2 diabetes, cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, and gout. Vitamin C can also help regulate the stress response, thereby reducing risk for depression and anxiety; and, there’s preliminary evidence that it may also help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
Learn more about vitamin C here.
Vitamin C Deficiency
A 2011 study evaluated American’s usual nutrient intake including nutrients that are naturally-occurring in foods, from fortified and enriched foods, and from supplements. The results indicated that 52.0% of American adults usual diet falls short of the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) for vitamin C intake.
Groups At Risk
Those at high risk of vitamin C deficiency include:
- people with genetic polymorphisms affecting vitamin C transport,
- those with health conditions that reduce vitamin C absorption, such as kidney disease,
- smokers and those who consume alcohol regularly, and
- people with increased vitamin C needs due to hyperthyroidism, iron deficiency, surgery, burns, inflammation, fever, diarrhea, and cold or heat stress.
Learn more here.
Symptoms of Deficiency
Severe vitamin C deficiency, known as scurvy, impairs collagen production, leading to tissue breakdown and symptoms like bleeding, poor wound healing, easy bruising, joint pain, and disintegration of the connective tissues in the gums, eventually causing tooth loss. General deficiency symptoms include fatigue, weakness, irritability, weight loss, joint and muscle pain, slow wound healing, anemia, depression, and bleeding gums to name a few. These symptoms develop over weeks or months of low vitamin C levels, though there’s limited evidence linking deficiency to chronic disease risk.
Learn more here.
Problems From Too Much Vitamin C
Daily intake above 2000 mg could lead to gastrointestinal upset. In some cases, dietary supplements that contain high doses of vitamin C can also cause headache, sleeping difficulties, skin flushing, and an increased risk of kidney stones, particularly in men.
How Much Vitamin C Do We Need?
The following table summarizes the current recommended amounts of vitamin C, based on age, gender, or situation but if you are stressed, have an infection, have an inflammatory condition, or are a smoker, you need even more vitamin C.
It’s also important to note that vitamin C has some interactions with other nutrients such as increasing non-heme iron absorption.
| 0 – 6 months | |||||
| 6 months to < 12 months | |||||
| 1 yr – 3 yrs | |||||
| 4 yrs – 8 yrs | |||||
| 9 yrs – 13 yrs | |||||
| 14 yrs – 18 yrs | |||||
| 19 yrs – 50 yrs | |||||
| 51+ yrs | |||||
| Pregnant (14 – 18 yrs) | |||||
| Pregnant (19 – 30 yrs) | |||||
| Pregnant (31 – 50 yrs) | |||||
| Lactating (14 – 18 yrs) | |||||
| Lactating (19 – 30 yrs) | |||||
| Lactating (31 – 50 yrs) |
Nutrient Daily Values
Nutrition requirements and recommended nutrient intake for infants, children, adolescents, adults, mature adults, and pregnant and lactating individuals.
More Food Sources of Vitamin C
The foods with the highest vitamin C content include: citrus fruits (oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes), kiwifruit, berries, bell peppers, guavas, papayas, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and leafy greens. Some organ meats (adrenal glands in particular) are also good sources of vitamin C. Cooking can reduce vitamin C levels in foods, with boiling being the worst offender, due to this vitamin being both water-soluble and sensitive to heat; steaming and microwaving lead to the highest vitamin C retention. Prolonged storage, too, causes vitamin C levels in foods to diminish over time.
Best Food Sources of Vitamin C
The following foods are best sources of this essential nutrient, containing at least 50% of the recommended dietary allowance per serving!
Good Food Sources of Vitamin C
The following foods are also excellent or good sources of vitamin C, containing at least 10% (and up to 50%) of the daily value per serving.
Top 5 Common Food Sources
If you’re looking for top 5 common food sources of other important nutrients check out these posts!
cITATIONS
Expand to see all scientific references for this article.
Fulgoni VL 3rd, Keast DR, Bailey RL, Dwyer J. Foods, fortificants, and supplements: Where do Americans get their nutrients? J Nutr. 2011 Oct;141(10):1847-54. doi: 10.3945/jn.111.142257. Epub 2011 Aug 24. PMID: 21865568; PMCID: PMC3174857.
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