I had a “conflict” (verbal of course) with my girlfriend about which is better for you, juice or tablets. Have you ever wondered? Well I dug this article up.
Please be aware that the below article IS from a blog. Although the website he/she quotes is a legitimate test.
Vitamin supplements haven’t really been shown to effect actual health outcomes in large studies. Vitamin C has the best evidence going for it, but even that’s shaky. We just took the supplements (me included) because, logically, they should work to reduce oxidative stress. Not so surprisingly, the media took off with these speculations and it became the conventional wisdom. Surprisingly, science never really challenged this conventional wisdom until recently.
This study looked at whether there was a difference between Orange Juice (they used blood oranges), Vitamin C alone, or sugar water in protecting against oxidative damage. The authors had participants take one of the three drinks and took blood samples every hour for 8 hrs and then at 24 hrs. The blood samples where treated with hydrogen peroxide (a strong oxidizer) and the DNA damage to mononuclear blood cells was measured. Starting at 3 hrs and up to at least 24 hrs after drinking, the orange juice protected the cells while the vitamin C drink and sugar water had no effect in the study. Something else is going on with the orange juice that can’t be reduced to just vitamin C. Much more needs to be done but this is a great start (it would be nice if someone could do a bridging study using navel oranges or similar; they are all citrus sinensis but different hybrids, I think). The big question remaining in my mind is where the media coverage is.
Well, now we know you can’t get out of eating right with a pill. It doesn’t work with losing weight and it doesn’t work for getting nutrients. The good news is that 1) you don’t have to worry about what pills you should be taking and 2) OJ is not only really good for you, it’s tasty too.
Now before I get my nose rubbed in this I do want to make a point, this was a VERY small group tested. I feel more people need to do the experiment. However, I will admit that I thought pills are far better than juice.
What are your thoughts, juice or pill?
hmmm… I would’ve assumed pills not because they were necessarily “better” for you but that you could ingest waaaay more Vitamin C in one shot than drinking it. It’s always interesting to learn how little we really know about the way specific vitamins are released/used by the body. Now if they could just find what vitamin cures wonky backs, I’d be all set!
Oh yes, you’re talking my language. And I’d push it up another notch – just eat the oranges and get the fibre too. Add a daily dose of leafy greens – potatoes (not sweet potatoes) are also high in vitamin C so we there are lots of food options for vitamin C.