Ascorbic acid, more commonly known as vitamin C, is a water-soluble nutrient that your body cannot store. Any vitamin C you do not use right away gets flushed when you urinate. Fruits and vegetables are natural sources of ascorbic acid. Juice made from them contains the vitamin. Some manufacturers also add ascorbic acid to the drinks they produce to preserve or fortify them.
Drinks
All citrus fruits and their juices are sources of vitamin C, but they are not the richest. A medium-size guava, a tropical fruit whose skin and flesh are edible, offers 165 mg ascorbic acid in comparison to a medium orange's 60 mg. Guava fruit is not readily available in the United States. Stores that sell Latin American foods sometimes carry canned guava juice, but it does not contain as much ascorbic acid as the fresh juice.
Tomato, cantaloupe and mango juice also contain vitamin C. If you juice vegetables, you can get the nutrient from spinach and broccoli. Manufactured drinks may also contain ascorbic acid; it's usually added to the beverage to prevent mold growth and to fortify it. The preservative is prevalent in soda formulas. Grape and apple juice are often enriched with vitamin C. The product label lists ascorbic acid among the ingredients if it is present in the recipe.
Getting the Most of It
Exposure to light, air and heat affects ascorbic acid's potency. Besides, when you mix water with the juice from a fruit or vegetable, the vitamin C in it begins to dissolve. Prepare juice from fresh produce. Make batches small enough for you to finish in one sitting. Store any leftovers for a maximum of three days in the refrigerator.
Recommended Intake
The Food and Nutrition Board of the U.S. Institute of Medicine recommends daily intakes of ascorbic acid for each age group. Infants to six months of age need 40 mg. Older babies until they turn 1 year old require 50 mg. At this age, children's vitamin C needs drop to 15 mg daily. When they turn 4, it goes back up to 25 mg. Between ages 9 and 13, boys and girls should get 45 mg. When they turn 14, the board recommends that males get 75 mg of ascorbic acid, while females can meet their daily requirement with 65 mg. From age 19 on, men need 125 mg and women 110 mg.
Ascorbic Acid Benefits
As an antioxidant, ascorbic acid neutralizes the potentially damaging effects of free radicals -- molecules that form during metabolism that can cause serious illnesses such as cancer if they stay in your body. Vitamin C also helps prevent heart disease, colds, hypertension, macular degeneration in the elderly and asthma, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.
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