Ascorbic acid is another name for vitamin C. It is a water-soluble nutrient the body requires daily for healing, tissue repair and the production of skin, ligaments, blood vessels and tendons. Maintaining adequate ascorbic acid levels can prevent many health complications associated with a deficiency in the vitamin, including bleeding gums, inflammation of the gums and joints, hair damage, tooth decay, scaly skin, decreased healing, increased susceptibility to infection and frequent bruising. Ascorbic acid is prevalent in fruits and vegetables.
Natural Ascorbic Acid Content
Apples, and thus natural and organic apple juice, naturally contains ascorbic acid. It is secondary only to malic acid in terms of the acid content of fresh apple juice. The ascorbic acid content of natural and organic apple juice actually increases its nutrition, along with other natural constituents, including pectin -- which provides fiber -- polyphenols and small amounts of protein. Accordingly, organic apple juice can help you fulfill your daily requirements of various nutrients, including vitamin C.
Ascorbic Acid in Processed Apple Juice
Processed and pasteurized apple juice contains considerably less nutrients than fresh and organic apple juice, particularly ascorbic acid. Due to processing and pasteurization, oxidative stress actually diminishes the vitamin content of the fruit juice during production. Unless producers manually add nutrients to processed apple juice, it will contain negligible nutrients aside carbohydrates, giving the juice a similar degree of nutrition as soft drinks.
Ascorbic Acid as a Preservative
Some apple juice producers add ascorbic acid to both organic and processed apple juice as a preservative rather than a nutrient. This ascorbic acid is synthetic, as it is produced in a lab rather than extracted from fruits and vegetables. It functions as a preservative effectively, because it kills bacteria while remaining inexpensive. However, Douglas Morrison and David Pesek indicate that synthetic ascorbic acid used as a preservative can kill beneficial microbes in addition to harmful ones, acting reverse to probiotics in the small intestine in the book "How We Heal: Understanding the Mind-Body-Spirit Connection." Morrison and Pesek suggest that this property can render synthetic ascorbic acid detrimental in large enough proportions.
Benefits and Controversies
Not only can ascorbic acid prevent a vitamin C deficiency, it can also promote health. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, a diet high in vitamin C can prevent cardiovascular complications, cancer, asthma, age-related eyesight loss and other health difficulties. However, the Mayo Clinic avers that there is little evidence to support that it can prevent eyesight loss and cardiovascular conditions, while research regarding asthma and cancer remain inconclusive. Nonetheless, the body does require at least 75 mg to 90 mg of vitamin C daily, and organic apple juice can only help to meet this requirement. Indeed, the synthetic ascorbic acid that appears in some organic apple juices may kill the beneficial bacterial throughout our digestive tract, as indicated in the book "How We Heal: Understanding the Mind-Body-Spirit Connection," but eating fermented foods and drinks like yogurt or kefir can help to replenish these losses, resulting in only the positive effects of ingesting vitamin C.
References
- "Production and Packaging of Non-Carbonated Fruit Juices and Fruit Beverages"; Philip R. Ashurst; 1999
- Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid); Steven D. Ehrlich; University of Maryland Medical Center; June 18, 2009
- Vitamin C; Alison Evert; MedlinePlus.com; February 15, 2011
- MayoClinic.com: Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)
- "How We Heal: Understanding the Mind-Body-Spirit Connection"; Douglas W. Morrison and David J. Pesek; 2006
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