High sugar sabotages the absorption of vitamin C. Vitamin C is a broad-spectrum antioxidant necessary for humans that cannot be synthesized in humans, which must be taken from dietary sources. There are two biologically important forms of vitamin C; the reduced form (ascorbic acid) and the oxidized form (dehydroascorbic acid). Vitamin C performs most of its biological functions within the cell, and glucose directly competes with vitamin C for this absorption. Having too much glucose in your system prevents vitamin C absorption. Vitamin C is taken up by cells along the entire length of the small intestine by membrane carriers (GLUT1, GLUT3, and GLUT4). Vitamin C then circulates in the blood and enters all other cells of the body. It acts as a cofactor in many reactions in the body. This means that biochemical reactions are deficient in vitamin C. What does that mean? The same transporters that transport glucose to our skeletal muscles and cells, GLUT, also carry vitamin C. But unfortunately for us, sugar is stronger than vitamin C, and glucose molecules eventually drop the transport by removing vitamin C from the transport molecule. It’s like two people trying to get in a taxi. Sugar in a taxi. From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense that gLUT carriers carry both vitamin C and glucose, as more than 4000 animals make vitamin C from glucose, but the genetic change prevents humans from completing the final step in making vitamin C from glucose. As a result, humans are one of the few creatures in the world that do not make their own vitamin C, meaning we need to get vitamin C through food or supplements. As a reference point, goats produce ~200 mg/kg of vitamin C, which means that a 70 kg goat will produce 14 grams of vitamin C.

Vitamin C:

-Healing of wounds, collagen production

-Production of catecholamines such as epinephrine

-This iron absorption

-Protection against DNA damage

-Free radicals neutralize vitamin C.

-It supports the immune system, especially the production of white blood cells.