Factors Affecting Vitamin C Status and Prevalence of Deficiency: A Global Health Perspective - PubMed (original) (raw)

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Factors Affecting Vitamin C Status and Prevalence of Deficiency: A Global Health Perspective

Anitra C Carr et al. Nutrients. 2020.

Abstract

A recent review of global vitamin C status has indicated a high prevalence of deficiency, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, as well as in specific subgroups within high-income countries. Here, we provide a narrative review of potential factors influencing vitamin C status globally. The in vivo status of vitamin C is primarily affected by dietary intake and supplement use, with those who supplement having a higher mean status and a lower prevalence of deficiency. Dietary intake can be influenced by cultural aspects such as traditional cooking practices and staple foods, with many staple foods, such as grains, contributing negligible vitamin C to the diet. Environmental factors can also affect vitamin C intake and status; these include geographic region, season, and climate, as well as pollution, the latter partly due to enhanced oxidative stress. Demographic factors such as sex, age, and race are known to affect vitamin C status, as do socioeconomic factors such as deprivation, education and social class, and institutionalization. Various health aspects can affect vitamin C status; these include body weight, pregnancy and lactation, genetic variants, smoking, and disease states, including severe infections as well as various noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. Some of these factors have changed over time; therefore, we also explore if vitamin C status has shown temporal changes. Overall, there are numerous factors that can affect vitamin C status to different extents in various regions of the world. Many of these factors are not taken into consideration during the setting of global dietary intake recommendations for vitamin C.

Keywords: communicable disease; dietary intake; global health; infection; noncommunicable disease; obesity; smoking; vitamin C; vitamin C deficiency; vitamin C status.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1

Figure 1

Estimated vitamin C content of selected fruit and vegetables. Data derived from the United States Department of Agriculture (

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/

). Note that vitamin C content can vary depending on the plant variety, and cooking may decrease the vitamin C content to variable extents. Pulses include kidney beans, chickpeas, mung beans, pinto beans, soybeans, lentils, peanuts, split peas; nuts include hazelnuts, pistachios, macadamia nuts, pecans, walnuts, brazil nuts, cashew nuts; seeds include chia, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds; grains include rice, millet, wheat/couscous, cornmeal. Animal products, such as meat (other than liver), eggs, and milk contain negligible vitamin C. Dotted lines: lower line indicates daily intake to prevent scurvy (10 mg/d); upper line indicates daily intake for optimal health (200 mg/d).

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