I just downloaded the tryal version of DietPower to give it a go. The first and good thing I noticed is that now I can track lots of micronutrients which I was not aware til now (I only watched sodium intake appart from having a daily multivitamin).

But now comes the scary part. My intake of vitamin C turned out to be around 500 mg a day. Apparently, most of it comes from my green intake, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, oranges and grapefruits. I cannot believe those foods are bad for me. But having around 400% of the RDA in vitamin C makes me worry. I don't have tons of those items, just 200 g. of cauliflower, 250 g. of green beans and an orange, could be it for a typical day.

How can you control your vitamin C intake and still have plenty of fruits and veggies? I'm training for a marathon, so ditching fruit is out of question. Plainly and simple, I need it.

Or, is the vitamin C excess worse than the absence of veggies? Should I switch to fattier items? More PB? More bacon? Maybe a deep fried Mars bar here and there? Burguers? Petrol?

I know vitamin C is hydrosoluble. I have 1.5 gallons of water a day. Is that enough? Should I raise it to 3 gallons to compensate for the 400% RDA of VC?

Wow, it seems one cannot be right whatsoever regarding nutrition:(

By the way, DietPower rocks. :tu:

500 mg of Vitamin C is nothing to worry about. Many people supplement with an additional 500 or 1000mg daily. I personally take upwards of 3000-4000mg when I feel sick or the startings of a cold.

There is a big controversy about how effective large doses of Vitamin C are in treating ailments, but getting 500mg a day naturally from fruits and vegetables is probably great for your health no matter who is right. Google "vitamin c" and you will get lots of links like vitaminc foundation, research by Pauling and Cathcart... but none of them are un-biased so I didn't want to link directly.

Wow, this (http://www.drgrisanti.com/vitamin_c_page.htm) is scary. :spaz:

Now I'm going to search for a page where somebody clames that donuts naturally lower your resting HR and help you to add 3 lbs. of muscle a week, when combined with double cream, honey and snickers bars.

WOW that isn't what I was expecting :P That is pretty crazy... but I'm thinking he is arguing against excessive supplementation, not avoiding it in natural, healthy foods.


ps. I'm gonna try a cream, honey, and snickers donut right now and I'll report my HR findings to you. In the name of science.

You both are making me hungry, and I don't even LIKE donuts. :rolleyes:

I agree with everything that was said about how people already suppliment with a lot of C. I'd like to point out that when you are training for a marathon you are burning through a lot of nutrients as well.

From natural sources, I don't think you can go wrong, so long as you are eating a balanced diet. Some people run higher on other nutrients to, but your body sheds the extra and usually only uses what it needs.

I wouldn't up your water, so long as you are drinking enough to compensate for what you lose while running, and your daily allotment. Good luck on your marathon, it's an awsome experience! :tucool:

Vit c is water soluble, it'd be almost impossible to get too much from foods imho.

Recommended Daily Amount. This % number is a very tricky thing. These numbers are the recommended MINIMUM !!! Why, to prevent Illness. I too use Dietpower and if you look at the UTL- Upper Tolorance Level you will see that this number far higher than the RDA.
From what I understand anywhere between the RDA & UTL is a safe range to be in. So go into the software, Edit your PDA's to eliminate the food coach from telling you to get less of and Vit.

Not to mention that the Government's RDA of protein is 50 grams a day. I get that much before lunch.

50 g, i get that at breakfast


you cant overdo vit c, dont worry about it, i take around 2g vit c a day

You're measuring your vitamin C intake with the wrong ruler.

The RDA is not the recommended daily allowance for good health. It's the recommended daily allowance for the MINIMUM amount you need to survive scurvy. There is a big difference between just avoiding scurvy and having optimal health.

The tolerable upper intake for vitamin C is something like 4 - 5 grams (4,000 - 5,000 milligrams) so you are well within the save range. Much research suggests that taking in amounts over 2 grams may be beneficial for a number of reasons. There are pros and cons, but here is something to think about - there is virtually no indication that any nutrient other than calories in general can be taken in excess (i.e. to cause negative side effects) from natural sources. It's almost always with supplementation of isolated, extracted, or artificially created forms that have shown issues with larger intakes.

I routinely take in about 3.8 grams (3800mg) of Vitamin C per day. I have excellent health, rarely get sick and when I do, I recover quickly.

That doesn't mean it will be the same for you, but I have done plenty of research on what I put into my body and taking plenty of vegetables and fruit is NOT an issue unless you are allergic or have certain conditions that would prevent this, like not being able to metabolise vitamin K.

Here is more info on vitamins and minerals:

http://www.naturalphysiques.com/cms/index.php?itemid=209

And if you're interested in learning more about specific nutrients like Vitamin C, you can do some searches on the web and pull the information together, or access it in one place with this course (http://www.naturalphysiques.com/cmd.php?af=192311&u=www.naturalphysiques.com/products/courses/).

I just downloaded the tryal version of DietPower to give it a go. The first and good thing I noticed is that now I can track lots of micronutrients which I was not aware til now (I only watched sodium intake appart from having a daily multivitamin).

But now comes the scary part. My intake of vitamin C turned out to be around 500 mg a day. Apparently, most of it comes from my green intake, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, oranges and grapefruits. I cannot believe those foods are bad for me. But having around 400% of the RDA in vitamin C makes me worry. I don't have tons of those items, just 200 g. of cauliflower, 250 g. of green beans and an orange, could be it for a typical day.

How can you control your vitamin C intake and still have plenty of fruits and veggies? I'm training for a marathon, so ditching fruit is out of question. Plainly and simple, I need it.

Or, is the vitamin C excess worse than the absence of veggies? Should I switch to fattier items? More PB? More bacon? Maybe a deep fried Mars bar here and there? Burguers? Petrol?

I know vitamin C is hydrosoluble. I have 1.5 gallons of water a day. Is that enough? Should I raise it to 3 gallons to compensate for the 400% RDA of VC?

Wow, it seems one cannot be right whatsoever regarding nutrition:(

By the way, DietPower rocks. :tu:

I was secretly waiting for Jeremy to post a reply here, hoping he would. :) Thanks bro!

I'm putting over 2g of Vit. C in my body a day easily.

Thanks, Jeremy.

Your post was very enlightening, as usual.