Vitamin C is an amazing immune system booster to fight colds, flu, & even adrenal fatigue – but are you taking the right kind?

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, nor am I claiming to be one. This article is not intended to diagnose or treat anyone. Links are affiliates and help to keep the information on this blog free. Please know that I never recommend a product or service that I wouldn’t use on my own family.

We are in a constant state of learning aren’t we?

I think I have learned more in my years after schooling and college than I ever did in formal education. It’s always good to be learning, reading, and growing.

Especially with regards to optimal health, it is really important to stay on top of things. I recently started working with a nutritional therapist for some adrenal issues I have had since having my last baby, and we had a really great conversation about vitamin C.

My NTP really opened my eyes to not only the importance of using the right source of vitamin C, but also that how we handle the vitamin C makes a difference.

Because, listen, I don’t mind doing the supplementing thing – I get it. I get that our soils (and therefore our food supply) is severely deficient in many vitamins. But I don’t want to supplement with something that is just as deficient as our food supply because it isn’t sourced right, or properly handled so the vitamin is destroyed.

Nobody wants to waste their money, and it isn’t doing anyone’s health any good to be taking a supplement that you think is doing you some good when it really isn’t.

So here’s the deal. Vitamin C is pretty amazing!

An immune system equipped with properly sourced and handled vitamin C can do amazing things with colds, flu, and other immune system crashers like adrenal fatigue.

Unfortunately vitamin C in many supplements on the market today are sourced with ascorbic acid instead of whole food. Using a whole food source is obviously always a better route, and in this case specifically, vitamin C is so much more complex than just ascorbic acid. There are actually dangerous downsides to taking just ascorbic acid based vitamin C (See this podcast for more details! So fascinating!).

Vitamin C is also very delicate.

Heat destroys it.

Prolonged air exposure destroys it.

Light destroys it.

So while this amazing vitamin we know we need is super powerful, it is pretty useless when it is not in it’s natural form, and has not been handled or packaged properly. My NTP said to think about it this way…our traditional ancestors would have foraged their berries and then dried them to save in dark storage. This would have kept the integrity of the nutrients – specifically the vitamin C – in the fruit.

So why not just eat an orange?

You guys know by now I am all about whole foods. My kids absolutely eat oranges, and other whole fruits and vegetables that are rich in vitamin C. But unfortunately our soils are so depleted there is no way we could eat as many oranges as it would take to get what we need. In fact my NPT told me that the whole food source of vitamin C in Camu Camu is 300 times the amount of vitamin C than American oranges.

So how about a whole food sourced vitamin C supplement that is properly prepared and packaged! Win-win! Since vitamin C is heat sensitive, it is important that the whole food source is dried out instead of heated to maintain the vitamin properties. And then packaged in a capsule and dark bottle to reduce light and air so as much of the C as possible is maintained.

We have been taking this whole food sourced vitamin C since well before school started, and it feels really good to know for sure that the C is intact, and doing some good!

My big girls swallow the capsules, and my 2 year old will take the powder from the capsule on her tongue.

…but sometimes it is just fun to have it in a different form!

We made some Vitamin C gummies to kick off the school year – and made them in a way that still protects the properties of the vitamin C! I am so excited to share this method with you!

Anytime you heat vitamin C, that C is destroyed.

So instead of cooking a vitamin C rich food like citrus oranges or lemons and destroying the vitamin C, we’re going to use whatever fruit you have around, warm up for the gelatin to work, and then we’ll add in our whole food sourced vitamin C off the heat to give it an immune boosting punch! I am keeping my vitamin C gummies in an airtight container in the fridge to further maintain the properties of the vitamin C.

This recipe allows YOU to decide how much vitamin C goes into each gummy so you can know for sure how much you are giving the kids. You can pack a full dose into one gummy, or spread out the vitamin C so they can have a 3 or 4 gummies at a time. Since kids come in different shapes and sizes, and with different nutritional needs, you can dose the vitamin C how their needs fall. I very highly recommend working with an NTP like Lydia that can see the nutritional needs of your kids from a very specific professional viewpoint.

UPDATE 2021 ::

Perfect Supplements came out with an Acerola Cherry sourced Vitamin C powder, and I am loving the super mild fruity flavor that blends so easily into anything. This is another great whole food sourced C that would work so well in a Vitamin C gummy like this! You can use my RGN reader code, GENERATION10, at check out to get 10% off!

What a fun way to build up the kid’s immune systems while they navigate the first couple months of back to school germs!