Vegetarians hit a high 'C.' - vitamin C - In the News

Vegetarian Times, Oct, 1995

To the countless reasons to eat fruits and vegetables, add one more: increased levels of vitamin C may be the reason vegetarians have lower blood pressure than the average American population.

Researchers have found an association between vitamin C (ascorbic acid) intake and low resting blood pressure in vegetarian adults. The study - the first to investigate vitamin C levels in vegtarians - was presented to the national conference in Experimental Biology in Atlanta last spring and is currently being considered for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

The new study follows one published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (vol. 59, 1994) that associates vegetarianism with lower average blood pressure, lower risk of hypertension and lower blood cholesterol levels - all factors that translate into lower risk for premature cardiovascular diseases. Both studies were conducted by scientists at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, who analyzed the diets of 167 vegetarian and meat-eating Seventh-day Adventist, African-American adults. Of the group, 16 percent of those who ate a vegetarian diet were confirmed to be hypertensive, compared to 36 percent of the meat eaters who also ate plenty of fruits and vegetables. "There are a lot of healthy aspects to a vegetarian diet besides not eating meat," says M. Lynn Toohey, one of the investigators. "Higher levels of vitamin C may be one of them." Toohey says she and her colleagues analyzed other dietary components, such as fiber, fat and trace minerals, before identifying the inverse relationship between vitamin C and blood pressure.

Other studies also make a connection between vitamin C and cardiovascular health. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., found that vitamin C deficiency increases cholesterol levels in animals, though observations on human populations have been less consistent. Studies in 1991 and 1993, also in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, support the possibility that vitamin C protects against human coronary disease.

Experts say it's premature to conclude that vitamin C prevents heart disease, at least until a broad-based, double-blind, randomized clinical trial is done. "We [haven't] determined whether or not increasing vitamin C in the diet or by supplement will improve blood pressure and the lipid profile," says Christopher Melby, D.H.Sc., associate professor of human nutrition at Colorado State, adding that until the hypothesis is proven, everyone should follow the age-old advice to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.