How Vitamin C Enhances Iron Absorption In The Body

September 11, 2022 — 9:02 AM

Fact: Your body doesn’t absorb every nutrient you feed it in full. One particularly testy nutrient? Iron. That’s right, the essential mineral iron is notoriously difficult to absorb. What’s more, you lose a certain amount of iron (e.g., in your urine, sweat, etc.) each day, and those who menstruate lose even more iron when they get their periods each month. 

If you’re looking to increase your absorption of dietary iron (especially non-heme iron from plants) or you just want to enhance the effectiveness of your iron supplement, keep reading. There’s one vitamin you may be skipping over. 

A quick refresher: Heme and non-heme iron come from different sources. Heme iron comes from animal sources (think meat, fish, and poultry), while non-heme iron comes from both plants and animals. The latter is not absorbed in the body quite as easily as animal-sourced iron. 

So if your diet consists of mainly plant-sources, you may have a bit of a harder time absorbing the amount of iron your body needs. However, there’s one essential nutrient that can assist this process: vitamin C. 

Vitamin C helps to enhance the bioavailability of non-heme iron. Translation? The presence of vitamin C makes non-heme iron more easily available for the body to absorb and use.* 

Additionally, vitamin C optimizes the uptake of iron from transferrin (the protein that transports iron through the blood), ensuring that iron is absorbed not only properly but efficiently distributed in the body as well.* Pretty cool, right?

For this process to happen, you obviously need to make sure you’re getting enough vitamin C in the first place. One surefire method: daily supplementation. If you’d rather not search high and low for a vitamin C supplement that’s potent, easy on the stomach, and bioavailable, we’ve got you covered. Enter, mbg’s vitamin C potency+.

This supplement contains a blend of high-potency vitamin C and citrus bioflavonoids. Altogether, this complex supplement delivers a strong dose of antioxidants—and ultimately serving up the equivalent vitamin C strength of 15 whole oranges in fact.‡ This way, you can ensure your vitamin C is prepped and ready to support your iron intake.