Nutritional Advice El MondoObjectives:
The association between vitamin C and metabolic syndrome (MetS) has been evaluated in several epidemiological studies with conflicting results. Therefore, this review article has been conducted.
Do dietary vitamin C intake and circulating vitamin C level reduce risk of metabolic syndrome?
Study design:
This review article included 26 cross-sectional studies and 2 cohort studies with a total number of 110,771 participants. 23 studies were related to the dietary vitamin C level.
The sample size ranged from 143 to 27,656 persons.
The dietary vitamin C level was assessed by food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) in 4 studies, a 24-h or 3-day recall in 18 studies and a 4-day record in 1 study.
No evidence of publication bias existed according to Begg's rank correlation test [p = 0.495].
Results and conclusions:
The investigators found when compared to the lowest dietary vitamin C intake, that the highest dietary vitamin C intake significantly reduced risk of metabolic syndrome with 7% [overall multivariable-adjusted RR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.88 to 0.97, p = 0.003, I2 = 54.5%, p = 0.003]. The above findings were confirmed in cross-sectional studies [RR = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.87 to 0.97, p = 0.001] and 24-h or 3-day recall [RR = 0.89, 95% CI = 0.86 to 0.93, p 0.001] studies.
The investigators found when compared to the lowest circulating vitamin C level, that the highest circulating vitamin C level significantly reduced risk of metabolic syndrome with 40% [overall multivariable-adjusted RR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.49 to 0.74, p 0.001, I2 = 22.7%, p = 0.249].
The investigators concluded that both the dietary and the circulating vitamin C level reduce risk of metabolic syndrome. However, due to the limitation of the available evidence, more well-designed prospective studies are still needed.
Original title:
Vitamin C and Metabolic Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies by Guo H, Ding J, [...], Zhang Y.
Link:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8531097/
Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on vitamin C consumption and overweight right here.
In practice, a lot of dietary vitamin C intake amounts to 200 to 300 grams of vegetables and 2-5 pieces of fruit per day. Vitamin C is found in fruit and vegetables.
A high circulating vitamin C level can be obtained through vitamin C-rich food and/or taking vitamin C supplements.