Vitamin C RDA Higher for Women

Vitamin C RDA Higher for Women

BETHESDA, Md.--In the Aug. 14 edition of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (98, 17:9842-6, 2001) (www.pnas.org), researchers from the National Institutes of Health(NIH) found that the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of vitamin C for young women needs to be increased. The RDAs released earlier this year were based on data for men, reported Mark Levine, M.D., fromNIH, and women need to consume 90 mg/d of vitamin C, not the previously reported 75 mg/d.

This change came about after researchers conducted a depletion-repletion study using healthy young women hospitalized for five to six months and found that taking high levels of vitamin C does not alter endogenous lipid peroxidation in healthy women.