Can Too Much Vitamin C Be Bad For You?
by Scott
(Rochdale, Lancashire, UK)
Scott's Question: I've just started a mainly raw food diet diet and eat a lot of vitamin C-rich fruit daily.
So, for instance, I eat a lot of oranges, strawberries, melons, mangoes, grapes,and tomatoes.
I was wondering, can too much vitamin C can be bad for you?
Andrew's Answer: Hi Scott.
Good question, and good timing.
I just finished an article explaining why humans only consume a fraction of the amount of vitamin C we require for optimal health, and why we're at the bottom of the barrel in terms of vitamin c levels when compared to the other species on this planet.
So I highly suggest you start off by
reading it here.

But let me answer your question specifically.
Although there have been some reports of isolated cases of people taking huge-dose supplement pills and having problems, there has been no confirmation of these reports.
Studies looking at people consuming a massive 10,000 mg of of vitamin C through supplement pills have shown that the subjects run into no unusual health problems.
One side effect reported from high-dose pills is diarrhea. This is also sometimes reported by people just starting raw food diets, but in all cases the situation resolves itself within days, and is likely just a sign of the body adapting from deficiency in vitamin C to a state of abundance.
I've been following this diet since 2005, and often consume 2,000 to 4,000 mg of vitamin C a day, far more than anyone else but raw foodists and those taking supplement pills consume. During that time my health has continued to flourish, and I certainly see no downside.
What To Do:From what science can tell us, there's no safe upper limit to vitamin C intake.
However, I highly suggest you don't attempt to supplement your way to sufficiency,
as that often backfires.
Instead, just keep doing what you're doing and eating those fruit. A healthy,
low fat fruit-based raw food diet certainly isn't going going to cause you any harm.