No abstract

The acute effects of ethanol on plasma ascorbic acid were assessed in healthy subjects. After the ingestion of 2.0 g ascorbic acid and breakfast, plasma ascorbic acid rose from a fasting concentration of 7.5 +/- 0.8 ng/ml at 0900 h. to a peak of 26.9 +/- m 2.0 ng/ml at 1500 h. When 35 g ethanol was ingested with ascorbic acid and breakfast, plasma ascorbic acid concentrations were significantly lower for at least 24 h.

No abstract

An increased range of orange drinks is now available with varying proportions of orange juice. These have begun to appear in institutions for the care of elderly people. With evidence of folacin deficiency in such elderly people, we evaluated the effect of either 100% orange juice or an orange drink (at least 5% juice) on folacin status in 19 institutionalized elderly people over a 13‐week period. Serum folacin increased from 8.5 ± 0.8 to 13.2 ± 0.8 nmol/l (P < 0.001) in 13 weeks, with 100 ml orange juice daily, but did not change from baseline (8.9 ± 0.8 nmol/l) to 13 weeks (8.5%± 0.7 nmol/l) with orange drink. By 6 weeks the difference between orange juice (11.0 ± 1.0 nmol/l) and orange drink (8.6 ± 0.7 nmol/l) was significant. Thus, not only is the choice of orange drink important, but small regular orange juice supplements can produce a significant increase in biochemical folacin status.