Why vitamin C may help you absorb iron from food

What is vitamin C

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid or ascorbate, is a water-soluble vitamin that helps maintain your health and wellbeing.¹ Getting enough vitamin C is a basic requirement of a healthy, balanced diet.² Citrus fruits are well known for being good sources of vitamin C, but kiwis, strawberries and pawpaw are also great sources.³ Green, leafy veg, tomatoes and capsicums also Provide vitamin C.³

Among other functions in the body such as keeping skin, bones and connective tissue healthy, vitamin C also may help us absorb iron more effectively.¹

How vitamin C aids iron absorption

Iron is an essential mineral that your body needs to produce haemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that helps transport oxygen throughout to your brain and other parts of your body.³ There are two types of iron found in food: haem iron and non-haem iron.³

Haem iron is found most readily in red meat but is also available in poultry, and fish and is absorbed easily by the body. Non-haem iron is found in eggs, nuts, wholemeal pasta, leafy green veg, beans, lentils and fortified cereals. It is not absorbed as efficiently by the body as haem iron.³

You may be able to increase the amount of iron your body absorbs from non-haem iron by including vitamin C-rich foods in your diet.³  This is especially important for people who don’t include much or any haem iron in their diet, such as vegetarians and vegans.

However, if you are diagnosed with iron deficiency, the iron and vitamin C in your diet alone are not enough to restore your iron levels.³

How much vitamin C do you need to help iron absorption?

The recommended daily intake (RDI) of vitamin C is 45mg for men and women and slightly lower for kids and adolescents (9-18yr) at 40mg per day.² This is around the amount you will find in half an orange.⁴

However, if you are being treated for medically diagnosed iron deficiency, much more vitamin C may be required to aid iron absorption. Studies have suggested that Vitamin C enhances iron absorption in a dose dependent way.^5,6

Ferro-grad C^® contains 500mg of vitamin C to aid the absorption of the therapeutic dose of 105mg of elemental iron.⁷ To take in the same amount of vitamin C in your diet, you would need to eat around 6 oranges per day,⁴ which would be a challenge!

If your doctor diagnoses you with iron deficiency and recommends a therapeutic oral iron supplement, remember that Ferro-grad C^® fights the fatigue of iron deficiency.

1. Health Direct. Vitamin C and your health, 2022. Accessed 8 March 2023. https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/vitamin-c-and-your-health
2. Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand. Vitamin C, 2005. Accessed 8 March 2023. https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/nutrient-reference-values/nutrients/vitamin-c
3. Gastroenterological Society of Australia. Iron deficiency clinical update, 2022.
4. Food Standards Australia New Zealand. F006276: Orange, navel, peeled, raw, 2021. Accessed 8 March 2023. https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/science/monitoringnutrients/afcd/Pages/fooddetails.aspx?PFKID=F006276
5. Brise H, Hallberg L. Acta Med Scand Suppl. 1962;376:51-8.
6. Hallberg L, Hulthen L. Am J Clin Nutri 2000;71:1147-60.
7. Ferro-grad C^® Product Label. Viatris.

FGC-2023-0026. September 2023.