# How can my orange juice have 120% Vitamin C? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519 "2004-02-27T20:44:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/1 "2004-02-27T20:44:17Z")
Am I missing something here or just not in the know how anything can have more then 100 percent of something? I mean, I was under the impression that 100 percent was, well, basically all of it. So how can it have more then the whole? ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/2 "2004-02-27T20:47:12Z")
It’s 120% of the recommended daily allowance. For instance, if the FDA decided that you need 10 g of vitamin C per day, the serving of OJ has 12 g. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/3 "2004-02-27T20:48:50Z")
Simple. The percentages you see on nutrition labels are the Recommended Daily Allowance. Exceeding these values would give more than 100 percent. For example, if the USRDA of vitamin C is 1000 units\*, and a serving of juice contains 1200 units, you’ve got 120% of the USRDA. - I don’t know what the exact figure is. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/4 "2004-02-27T20:54:21Z")
Ohhhh… _blank stare_ I must say right now that math is not my strong point. The answer makes a bit of sense to me, and certainly answers my question. The hard part now is just fully understanding it. Heh. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/5 "2004-02-27T20:56:26Z")
And according to [www.nal.usda.gov](http://www.nal.usda.gov), orange juice has 124 mg and the daily allowance is 90 mg so that’s not exactly jiving, unless I’m missing something. ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/6 "2004-02-27T20:56:32Z")
Expanding on what Bruce\_Daddy said, the 120% has nothing to do with the components of what’s in the bottle. Your OJ is made up of (presumably) the juice of oranges. The bottle is filled with 100% juice. That juice provides vitamin C. How much vitamin C does it have? It has 1.2 times the amount that your body needs to receive in one day. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/7 "2004-02-27T21:08:55Z")
> [@scout1222](#): > > How much vitamin C does it have? It has 1.2 times the amount that your body needs to receive in one day. Okayyyyyyyyyy. I get it now. 😃 Thank you. So it’s not what’s **in** the actual content, just based on what they think you should be intaking a day, which, if you drank a serving of O.J., you’d be getting a whopping 120 percent of V.C. Wow, I may never need to eat or drink anything else with V.C. again. All my V.C. needs would just come with a glass of O.J a day. Even every other day would suffice. ---
**Author:** ![desdinova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@desdinova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/desdinova)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/8 "2004-02-27T22:03:51Z")
> [@Idle Thoughts](#): > > Okayyyyyyyyyy. I get it now. 😃 Thank you. > > So it’s not what’s **in** the actual content, just based on what they think you should be intaking a day, which, if you drank a serving of O.J., you’d be getting a whopping 120 percent of V.C. > > Wow, I may never need to eat or drink anything else with V.C. again. All my V.C. needs would just come with a glass of O.J a day. Even every other day would suffice. The problem with this theory is Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin. What that means is that your body can’t really store it in any appreciable amounts, whatever excess is ingested simply passes right on through the body. Now, a glass of OJ a day is perfectly fine to meet your Vitamin C needs, but you can’t drink 365 times the RDA and not have to have any more for a year. All of the B Vitamins are also water soluble. Some vitamins, particularly some of the fat soluble ones, are actually toxic at extremely high dosages. Folate seems to ring a bell… I can’t remember them off hand and most require you to eat a whole bottle of vitamin supplements to see any effects. No, I’m not a doctor or a nutritionist. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/9 "2004-02-27T22:13:19Z")
> [@Bruce\_Daddy](#): > > And according to [www.nal.usda.gov](http://www.nal.usda.gov), orange juice has 124 mg and the daily allowance is 90 mg so that’s not exactly jiving, unless I’m missing something. the serve amount? And OP… why didn’t you read the back of the carton? It would’ve explained it all there. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/10 "2004-02-27T22:27:37Z")
> [@desdinova](#): > > The problem with this theory is Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin. What that means is that your body can’t really store it in any appreciable amounts, whatever excess is ingested simply passes right on through the body. Now, a glass of OJ a day is perfectly fine to meet your Vitamin C needs, but you can’t drink 365 times the RDA and not have to have any more for a year. > . Well, yeah, that goes without saying. I actually drink way more then one glass a day. More like one carton a day when I can afford it. I tell you, I’m addicted to O.J. And while the V.C. is not toxic as the others you mention, I did read somewhere once (sorry, don’t have a cite, it was just something I browsed through a long time ago) is one of the side effects to too much V.C. is addiction. Maybe that explains my cravings for O.J. at times and why it never lasts long in my house. > [@Who Stole My Name?](#): > > And OP… why didn’t you read the back of the carton? It would’ve explained it all there. Well, I did, but it was all greek to me. I still didn’t understand all the things it was talking about. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/11 "2004-02-27T22:59:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, I did, but it was all greek to me. I still didn’t understand all the things it was talking about. The FDA has a very clear [guide to food labels](http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/foodlab.html) available online. It explains everything listed in the nutrition panel, including how to use the percent daily value information. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/12 "2004-02-27T23:07:52Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > The FDA has a very clear [guide to food labels](http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/foodlab.html) available online. It explains everything listed in the nutrition panel, including how to use the percent daily value information. 🙂 Thank you. I’m going to go take a look and browse it right now. And thanks to everyone else who helped me be a little less ignorant today. ---
**Author:** ![Thaumaturge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Thaumaturge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thaumaturge)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/13 "2004-02-27T23:21:34Z")
Keep in mind that the USRDAs are minimums designed to keep people from developing diseases like rickets and scurvy. In most cases it’s perfectly safe, and even desirable to obtain more than that. You need do do a little research though. Things like vitamin C are extremely difficult to overdose on, you’d have to try real hard. Things like Iron, however, are toxic in non-growing, non-menstruating, non-iron decicient anemic adults in larger than recommended doses. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/14 "2004-02-27T23:43:56Z")
> [@Idle Thoughts](#): > > And while the V.C. is not toxic as the others you mention, I did read somewhere once (sorry, don’t have a cite, it was just something I browsed through a long time ago) is one of the side effects to too much V.C. is addiction. Maybe that explains my cravings for O.J. at times and why it never lasts long in my house. Uh, no, vitamin C is not addictive. That’s one of the most remarkably bizarre things I’ve ever heard. Actually, the stuff’s pretty much nontoxic even in high doses; the RDA is 60mg a day (someone quotes 90 above - has this changed recently?) which means that the 1 gram pills they sell have 1667% of the government’s value. I’ve heard about studies in which participants were given up to _20 grams_ a day - that being 33333% of your daily allowance, or 333 times as much as the government recommends. It can cause diarrhea in those quantities, and there are some concerns, not proven yet, that consistent megadosing of vitamin C can cause kidney stones, but as far as is proven, you couldn’t possibly drink enough orange juice for the vitamin C in it to cause toxicity. (Whether something else would is another story.) A lot of doctors actually consider the RDA of vitamin C to be far too low. Some folks have called for the value to increase to 250mg per day - 60 staves off scurvy quite reliably, but optimum levels may be considerably higher. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/15 "2004-02-29T03:02:23Z")
There is something called “rebound scurvy” which can occur if you are taking large doses of C then stop abruptly. [http://www.healthyeatingclub.com/info/books-phds/books/foodfacts/html/data/data4i.html](http://www.healthyeatingclub.com/info/books-phds/books/foodfacts/html/data/data4i.html) > [@](#): > > Recommendations about vitamin C intake were first concerned with the prevention of scurvy. Recommended intakes of about 30 milligrams per day do not usually ‘saturate’ the body tissues with vitamin C and, indeed, this may not be necessary. But to saturate body tissues, no more than 100 to 130 milligrams per day are required. With intakes above this, our bodies adapt by increasing breakdown of vitamin C or excreting it in the urine. I take a C supplement daily, but if I forget to take it, my gums are very slightly more tender the next day. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/16 "2004-02-29T09:02:07Z")
> [@desdinova](#): > > The problem with this theory is Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin. What that means is that your body can’t really store it in any appreciable amounts, whatever excess is ingested simply passes right on through the body. Your body can absorb much higher amounts of vitamin C than the RDA (90 mg), though. When vitamin C is taken by mouth, up to 250 mg, about 80 percent is absorbed into the blood. With larger doses the rate of absorption is less, about 50 percent for a dose of 2 g and still smaller for larger doses. ---
**Author:** ![swansont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5fc32e/32.png) [@swansont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swansont)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-my-orange-juice-have-120-vitamin-c/231519/17 "2004-02-29T13:02:28Z")
> [@Bruce\_Daddy](#): > > orange juice has 124 mg and the daily allowance is 90 mg so that’s not exactly **jiving** , unless I’m missing something. It’s not jibing, either.