Can You Overdose on Vitamin C

While looking for vitamin C and its benefits, you may wonder about can you overdose on vitamin C, and when you will start looking for can you overdose on vitamin C, you may find yourself curious about what would excess of vitamin C will do to your body. However, to know about these issues, one will first need to know how vital vitamin C is for a good, healthy living. It should be noted that like all other vitamins, vitamin C is also not considered as a nutrient. However, it is very necessary for our body as it helps in absorbing and making use of various other nutrients that we take through our food.
Before discussing about can you overdose on vitamin C, let us know vitamin C a little more. Vitamin C is also known as ascorbic acid and it is very commonly found in all citric fruits. In addition, you can attain good amount of vitamin C by devouring and enjoying the tastes of some other luscious fruits such as watermelon, strawberries, sweet-apple, black currant, acerola cherries, sour sop, Amalaki, kiwi, and guava. Vitamin C is also available in a number of vegetables such as tomatoes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, bell pepper, cauliflower, spinach and all other green leafy vegetables. As a matter of fact, a person can easily attain the required amount of vitamin C to maintain proper health through regular foods which include these fruits and vegetables. However, this person must be a non-smoker, healthy adult.
A non-smoker adult male requires 90 mgs of vitamin C daily which can be attained through fruits and vegetables containing rich concentration of vitamin C. However, a female needs little less. But, if a woman is pregnant or if she is a breast feeding mother, she will require higher amount of vitamin C to provide ascorbic acid to her child too. So, if you are dependent on natural sources of vitamin C, the answer for your question, can you overdose on vitamin C is a negative. One can eat too much fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C, but it is difficult or nearly impossible to get overdose of vitamin C through natural food. However, things changes if a person starts taking medicinal vitamin C supplements.
Even if you are taking vitamin C supplements, the answer to question can you overdose on vitamin C is yes, but it is very rare to happen. This is because vitamin C is readily soluble in water. This means that even if you take too much vitamin C, it will be expelled out of your body automatically through urine. In fact, a person can take around 2000 mgs of vitamin C without worrying for any serious side effects of vitamin C toxicity. Yet, proper answer to question, can you overdose on vitamin C is yes, and the side effects of vitamin C toxicity can be constipation, gastric troubles, and abdominal cramps.