Welcome! I'm Jennifer, the owner & founder of Healing Redefined Holistic Wellness Center, holistic practitioner, and head nutrition nerd here at Healing Redefined.
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80 Responses
In the delusional world of western thinking on nutrients, ascorbic acid is called “vitamin C.”
It isn’t vitamin C, of course. Real vitamin C is a broad spectrum of synergistic compounds, never just an isolated, homogeneous molecule. But don’t tell that to doctors, scientists or journalists, because they’ve all bought into the “ascorbic acid is vitamin C” delusion.
So nearly all the common “vitamin C” pills are nothing more than heavily refined ascorbic acid derived from GM corn. That’s why those pills don’t work, by the way. So when the mainstream media declares, “Vitamin C shows no benefit…” in clinical trials, what they are really saying is that heavily processed ascorbic acid isolated from genetically modified corn doesn’t improve your health, and that’s no surprise.
Look on the labels of your cheap, low-grade vitamins and multivitamins… you’ll see “ascorbic acid” listed there, meaning you are eating GMOs. Throw those away. They’re crap.
Thanks for the information Allison. You can read about the importance of a whole food source of Vitamin C in the linked post: http://www.20somethingallergies.com/whole-food-vitamin-c/. This application doesn’t require using a whole food source, since it’s not meant to be part of your daily Vitamin C consumption. Many people are allergic to citrus and don’t want to bathe in anything that contains sugars, so I want to make everyone aware of the difference between neutralizing chlorine and consuming supplements.
would just like to point out there are two different kinds of Vitamin C that can be used to neutralize chlorine Ascorbic acid or Sodium Ascorbate.. Sodium Ascorbate is neutral PH great for people with the acid concerns.
Vitamin C is indeed a simple, yet very powerful, molecule (C6H8O6.) It is NOT a ‘broad spectrum of synergistic compounds’ as some marketers like to say.
Vitamin C in fruits and vegetables may come along with a host of other useful chemicals, but they are not vitamin C.
Most of the animals in the forest and under the sea produce Vitamin C in the livers or kidneys (humans sadly do not, but they used to.) And what they produce is the plain and simple Vitamin C molecule. It serves them quite well in that form.
The notion that Vitamin C is some fancy complex holds no water and derives from various marketing campaigns usually selling overpriced vitamins.
There’s no such thing. You can get non-gmo ascorbic acid from the vitamin C foundation. Dr. Linus Pauling did extensive research on vitamin C and “real” vitamin C is ascorbic acid. Link for more information. http://vitamincfoundation.org/NaturalC.htm
No Liz, Allison explained the proper definition of the Vitamin C, in totality! NO substance in nature, is just one substance all alone on it’s own, and it is the synergistic combination of life factors that creates the various nutrients, but all the components must be there, for any one component to be effective! Once you extract one component from the whole living organism, it has ceased to be a part of the life giving organism, the organism is altered, and is no better for health and life than a chemical medicine, extracted from the whole of some plant!
The average bathtub holds 100 gallons of water. 1/4 teaspoon ascorbic acid would be enough to neutralize. If you have a larger bath, of course you would need more. HTH!
I’ve been using the cheapest asorbic acid or sodium ascorbate powder I can find for a few years now in our baths. Since it’s just to react with the chlorine I’ll save the acerola cherry powder for actual consumption and we already use a Berkey anyway so our drinking and cooking water is safer. I can tell a difference in the chlorine smell when I use the vitamin C and when I don’t. I was coming down with a nasty cold once and all I wanted to do was stay in the bath. So I did for about 3 hours 🙂 After draining and reheating a few times without adding more vitamin C I could smell a difference in the water.
I don’t have much research on pools, but I know there are many alternative methods to disinfecting the water. If you neutralize the chlorine, the water will no longer contain a disinfectant to keep it clean.
Unfortunately, you want the chlorine in your pool water to keep it sanitary. I did just read on another site that Vitamin C is used in pools to remove stains. They suggest letting the chlorine level drop first though. I think they were using 1/2 lb. of Vitamin C per 10,000 gallons of water!
Apparently Vitamin C is used for all kinds of other things. Quite a few doctors are suggesting C and other vitamins to ward off sickness, of course.
It says that one of the by-products of the reaction is Hydrocloric Acid… I’m assuming it is produced in levels that aren’t harmful to consume? Is it any better than consuming chlorine?
I’m sorry, but I don’t have any information on that. In theory, the levels should not be harmful or you would feel the effects of the acid on your skin. It’s a safe method to neutralize chlorine for aquatic life, and they are ultra sensitive to the pH of their environment. In addition, our stomach acid is hydrochloric acid, so it shouldn’t be problematic if consumed.
So just to clarify I add ascorbic acid to my cooking, drinking & bath water & I also add a few squirts of citrus to my drinking water?? Is that correct?
Any water that you want to remove chlorine from, add ascorbic acid. If you are adding citrus to your drinking water, you are naturally adding whole Vitamin C complex so there’s no need to add any additional.
I’m not sure if essential oils retain any Vitamin C. Vitamin C is destroyed during heating, so it would likely depend on how the oils are distilled. You would have to contact the oil manufacturer to find out.
Very interesting stuff, thanks for sharing. I’m currently on the GAPS diet right now to repopulate my gut’s good bacteria. Part of the protocol includes lots of detox baths. I became a bit perturbed to discover that chlorine kills beneficial gut bacteria, so you’re article has been most helpful. I have a question though. I was taking Vitamin C in the past (as asorbic acid) and I discovered that asorbic acid on it’s own, is also incredibly destructive to beneficial gut bacteria. If I use my old vitamin C (asorbic acid) tablets to neutralise the chlorine in the bath, will both the asorbic acid and the chlorine be used up in the reaction and thus removed from the bath water? Or is it likely that i’ll be absorbing the asorbic acid also? Many thanks for your thoughts! R
I ordered the Ascorbic Acid from Amazon that you linked to a week ago or so. It came in the mail and I started using it in my baths. I noticed a definite decrease in the chlorine smell of the water. The water here has a very strong chlorine smell! I think I’ll still end up getting a shower filter so I can rinse my hair when I’m done in the bath. Anyways, thank you for the good info and for the link to the product.
I’m going to install a whole house water filter that in addition to filtering out any sediment, will also filter out (or neutralize) chlorine. That’s why I’m currently studying up on all this. My question for right now is, would putting a vitamin C tablet in your bath water work for combating the chlorine?
Yes, it will. It is likely made of ascorbic acid, so you can follow the instructions above and drop it in to dissolve before getting in the bath or powder it before adding it to the bath.
Thanks for the article. I have been using vitamin c powder in my bath for a year, as I had chronic hives and figured out I was having a reaction to chlorine. My hives are gone now. What a great and easy solution for me.
I use a small amount of chlorine to make safe water when I’m camping and always have a bit of chlorine taste that lets me know the water is ok. I assume that I can add citrus juice or vitamin c to water afterwards to remove the chlorine and still have safe water?
Wes, as long as you have given the chlorine enough time to kill the potential pathogens in your water (at least half an hour), it will still be safe to drink after you neutralize the chlorine.
I tried the two links above for the sodium ascorbate and for the ascorbic acid, and got “error” pages (Invalid Publisher Code, Offer, or Publisher – Advertiser Partnership Status ) – not sure if amazon isn’t carrying the specific brand you had linked, or if my Firefox is not playing nice or just what. I just typed in the names in Amazon and got other hits, so they may or may not be the ones that play with your referral link… so just thought I’d give you a heads up, since that is cash flow going bye-bye. I know you have wayyy too many other things to do on maternity leave to fiddle with this, but I hate to buy something that isn’t going to benefit your website either.
Hi there..
Thanks for this great and very helpful article. I wish to sprinkle some lemon to neutralize the chlorine/chloramine in my bathing water. Can you please guide me on how many spoons of lemon juice have to be added to do that.
Thanks
It would depend on the amount of vitamin C in each lemon. Lemon C varies widely with each piece of fruit depending on when it’s grown, picked, and when the juice is squeezed. If it’s pasteurized lemon juice, you can compare on the bottle with the formula I give. They will likely have added ascorbic acid back in, since heat destroys vitamin C. I’m sorry I can’t help you further!
Buckets can come in all shapes and sizes, so I would suggest measuring the amount of water that goes into your bucket. Then, you can use that number to determine how much to use. I wish i could tell you how much was in each lemon, but there are tests that show the amount we assume to be in them isn’t usually the case. If they are grown conventionally with chemicals, it’s even less than organic and much less than biodynamically grown lemons.
If you mean from the water soaking into it, I would imagine that soaking it in a tub or sink full of water and then adding ascorbic acid should do the trick.
I have been using Vitamin C to make sure the Kefir I make is not adversely affected by washing the glass containers in chlorinated water. I wash them with the regular water but I make sure to do a final rinse with water that has been treated with Vitamin C and/or vinegar to get make sure my probiotics are not getting harmed in the container.
Hey Anonymous ! You and I are in the same boat…Water Kefir. My water kefir grains have been having a hard time lately, I assume because of the chlorine / chloramine in our tap water.
I found out recently that the 24 hour aeration does not eliminate the chloramine so I surfed on to this page and “now we know” . 🙂
Thanks Jennifer and friends for this very helpful discussion.
do you think orange or lemon oils (like from Young Living or other Co.) would neutralize or do you think in the distillery process the heat would ruin the “ascorbic acid” properties?
80 Responses
In the delusional world of western thinking on nutrients, ascorbic acid is called “vitamin C.”
It isn’t vitamin C, of course. Real vitamin C is a broad spectrum of synergistic compounds, never just an isolated, homogeneous molecule. But don’t tell that to doctors, scientists or journalists, because they’ve all bought into the “ascorbic acid is vitamin C” delusion.
So nearly all the common “vitamin C” pills are nothing more than heavily refined ascorbic acid derived from GM corn. That’s why those pills don’t work, by the way. So when the mainstream media declares, “Vitamin C shows no benefit…” in clinical trials, what they are really saying is that heavily processed ascorbic acid isolated from genetically modified corn doesn’t improve your health, and that’s no surprise.
Look on the labels of your cheap, low-grade vitamins and multivitamins… you’ll see “ascorbic acid” listed there, meaning you are eating GMOs. Throw those away. They’re crap.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/041416_GMO_vitamins_maltodextrin.html#ixzz2bKtTmTRq
Thanks for the information Allison. You can read about the importance of a whole food source of Vitamin C in the linked post: http://www.20somethingallergies.com/whole-food-vitamin-c/. This application doesn’t require using a whole food source, since it’s not meant to be part of your daily Vitamin C consumption. Many people are allergic to citrus and don’t want to bathe in anything that contains sugars, so I want to make everyone aware of the difference between neutralizing chlorine and consuming supplements.
would just like to point out there are two different kinds of Vitamin C that can be used to neutralize chlorine Ascorbic acid or Sodium Ascorbate.. Sodium Ascorbate is neutral PH great for people with the acid concerns.
Thanks for clarifying Ron. 🙂 They are both in the post, and the amounts are given for using each to neutralize.
Vitamin C is indeed a simple, yet very powerful, molecule (C6H8O6.) It is NOT a ‘broad spectrum of synergistic compounds’ as some marketers like to say.
Vitamin C in fruits and vegetables may come along with a host of other useful chemicals, but they are not vitamin C.
Most of the animals in the forest and under the sea produce Vitamin C in the livers or kidneys (humans sadly do not, but they used to.) And what they produce is the plain and simple Vitamin C molecule. It serves them quite well in that form.
The notion that Vitamin C is some fancy complex holds no water and derives from various marketing campaigns usually selling overpriced vitamins.
Just make sure your Ascorbic Acid is organic, or use it fresh from your citrus fruit like you suggested.
There’s no such thing. You can get non-gmo ascorbic acid from the vitamin C foundation. Dr. Linus Pauling did extensive research on vitamin C and “real” vitamin C is ascorbic acid. Link for more information. http://vitamincfoundation.org/NaturalC.htm
No Liz, Allison explained the proper definition of the Vitamin C, in totality! NO substance in nature, is just one substance all alone on it’s own, and it is the synergistic combination of life factors that creates the various nutrients, but all the components must be there, for any one component to be effective! Once you extract one component from the whole living organism, it has ceased to be a part of the life giving organism, the organism is altered, and is no better for health and life than a chemical medicine, extracted from the whole of some plant!
Darius Wright, consider that animals make their own vitamin C in their bodies and it is ascorbic acid, period…
How much would you need to add to a bath? I ordered chlorine removing tabs for our toddler, but they never came in the mail.
You’d have to find out how many gallons your bathtub holds. You can probably do a quick Google search to find out the average yield of bathtubs.
The average bathtub holds 100 gallons of water. 1/4 teaspoon ascorbic acid would be enough to neutralize. If you have a larger bath, of course you would need more. HTH!
A 1000 mg capsule should take care of a bathtub full of water. Just twist it open and pour the contents in …
I’ve been using the cheapest asorbic acid or sodium ascorbate powder I can find for a few years now in our baths. Since it’s just to react with the chlorine I’ll save the acerola cherry powder for actual consumption and we already use a Berkey anyway so our drinking and cooking water is safer. I can tell a difference in the chlorine smell when I use the vitamin C and when I don’t. I was coming down with a nasty cold once and all I wanted to do was stay in the bath. So I did for about 3 hours 🙂 After draining and reheating a few times without adding more vitamin C I could smell a difference in the water.
Interesting! I love detox baths. 🙂
Me too. Epsom salt, fresh, ginger, tea tree oil and lavender oil make a goof detox bath 🙂
Thanks for the information! What about swimming pools — think this would help with the chlorine? Any tips on what to do with pools?
I don’t have much research on pools, but I know there are many alternative methods to disinfecting the water. If you neutralize the chlorine, the water will no longer contain a disinfectant to keep it clean.
Holistic Squid has a great article on minimizing personal chlorine exposure from swimming pools: http://holisticsquid.com/4-cheap-and-easy-ways-to-protect-against-swimming-pool-chemicals/.
Unfortunately, you want the chlorine in your pool water to keep it sanitary. I did just read on another site that Vitamin C is used in pools to remove stains. They suggest letting the chlorine level drop first though. I think they were using 1/2 lb. of Vitamin C per 10,000 gallons of water!
Apparently Vitamin C is used for all kinds of other things. Quite a few doctors are suggesting C and other vitamins to ward off sickness, of course.
And what about chloramine? Said to be a more harmful bi-product of chlorine… do you know if ascorbic acid has any effect on it?
Sure does! From all I’ve read, it could be the best method of neutralizing chloramine.
So I could cut up lemons & oranges & toss them in my bath water??
In theory, but then you’d have to deal with the sticky, sugary juice.
Do both Ascorbic Acid and Sodium Ascorbate have to be used or can you choose between the two?
It’s either or!
It says that one of the by-products of the reaction is Hydrocloric Acid… I’m assuming it is produced in levels that aren’t harmful to consume? Is it any better than consuming chlorine?
I’m sorry, but I don’t have any information on that. In theory, the levels should not be harmful or you would feel the effects of the acid on your skin. It’s a safe method to neutralize chlorine for aquatic life, and they are ultra sensitive to the pH of their environment. In addition, our stomach acid is hydrochloric acid, so it shouldn’t be problematic if consumed.
Nice article.
Though your title is misleading it should read how to Neutralize…, not remove,
as you are not removing anything
Very interesting! Thanks for the info!
So just to clarify I add ascorbic acid to my cooking, drinking & bath water & I also add a few squirts of citrus to my drinking water?? Is that correct?
Any water that you want to remove chlorine from, add ascorbic acid. If you are adding citrus to your drinking water, you are naturally adding whole Vitamin C complex so there’s no need to add any additional.
What about citrus essential oil? Would it have the same effect?
I’m not sure if essential oils retain any Vitamin C. Vitamin C is destroyed during heating, so it would likely depend on how the oils are distilled. You would have to contact the oil manufacturer to find out.
Very interesting stuff, thanks for sharing. I’m currently on the GAPS diet right now to repopulate my gut’s good bacteria. Part of the protocol includes lots of detox baths. I became a bit perturbed to discover that chlorine kills beneficial gut bacteria, so you’re article has been most helpful. I have a question though. I was taking Vitamin C in the past (as asorbic acid) and I discovered that asorbic acid on it’s own, is also incredibly destructive to beneficial gut bacteria. If I use my old vitamin C (asorbic acid) tablets to neutralise the chlorine in the bath, will both the asorbic acid and the chlorine be used up in the reaction and thus removed from the bath water? Or is it likely that i’ll be absorbing the asorbic acid also? Many thanks for your thoughts! R
Neither the chlorine not ascorbic acid will directly affect your gut flora unless you swallow it.
I ordered the Ascorbic Acid from Amazon that you linked to a week ago or so. It came in the mail and I started using it in my baths. I noticed a definite decrease in the chlorine smell of the water. The water here has a very strong chlorine smell! I think I’ll still end up getting a shower filter so I can rinse my hair when I’m done in the bath. Anyways, thank you for the good info and for the link to the product.
That’s great Shannon! Thanks for always being so supportive. 🙂
I’m going to install a whole house water filter that in addition to filtering out any sediment, will also filter out (or neutralize) chlorine. That’s why I’m currently studying up on all this. My question for right now is, would putting a vitamin C tablet in your bath water work for combating the chlorine?
Yes, it will. It is likely made of ascorbic acid, so you can follow the instructions above and drop it in to dissolve before getting in the bath or powder it before adding it to the bath.
Well done for such an informative post, it’s so great to think we can actually improve the water quality fairly innocuously and cheaply x x x 🙂
Could you use Epsom Salt with the ascorbic acid?
Yep. It won’t cause a reaction.
I need this product
Great article! I always drink water with fresh lemon, so was happy to discover lemon neutralises the chlorine. Happy days
Just wondering if my vitamin C dietary supplements can be used to declorinate the bathtub.. 🙂
You should be able to. It just depends on the ingredients. If there are dyes or sweeteners, I would avoid using it.
I read somewhere that baking soda can also help with removing/neutralizing chlorine for the epsom salt bath. Any thoughts/info on that?
I’m sorry, but I haven’t heard that.
thanks. I will try it all!
Thanks for the article. I have been using vitamin c powder in my bath for a year, as I had chronic hives and figured out I was having a reaction to chlorine. My hives are gone now. What a great and easy solution for me.
That’s fantastic! I love natural remedies.
hi Jennifer thanks for information . please tell me that:
ِDoes the waste of chlorine with vitamin C is better than chlorine for the environment?
Vitamin C neutralizes chlorine, so it is no longer a toxic substance. It is more gentle to the environment than chlorine alone.
I use a small amount of chlorine to make safe water when I’m camping and always have a bit of chlorine taste that lets me know the water is ok. I assume that I can add citrus juice or vitamin c to water afterwards to remove the chlorine and still have safe water?
The Vitamin C should definitely neutralize the chlorine.
Wes, as long as you have given the chlorine enough time to kill the potential pathogens in your water (at least half an hour), it will still be safe to drink after you neutralize the chlorine.
I tried the two links above for the sodium ascorbate and for the ascorbic acid, and got “error” pages (Invalid Publisher Code, Offer, or Publisher – Advertiser Partnership Status ) – not sure if amazon isn’t carrying the specific brand you had linked, or if my Firefox is not playing nice or just what. I just typed in the names in Amazon and got other hits, so they may or may not be the ones that play with your referral link… so just thought I’d give you a heads up, since that is cash flow going bye-bye. I know you have wayyy too many other things to do on maternity leave to fiddle with this, but I hate to buy something that isn’t going to benefit your website either.
Hi there..
Thanks for this great and very helpful article. I wish to sprinkle some lemon to neutralize the chlorine/chloramine in my bathing water. Can you please guide me on how many spoons of lemon juice have to be added to do that.
Thanks
It would depend on the amount of vitamin C in each lemon. Lemon C varies widely with each piece of fruit depending on when it’s grown, picked, and when the juice is squeezed. If it’s pasteurized lemon juice, you can compare on the bottle with the formula I give. They will likely have added ascorbic acid back in, since heat destroys vitamin C. I’m sorry I can’t help you further!
Buckets can come in all shapes and sizes, so I would suggest measuring the amount of water that goes into your bucket. Then, you can use that number to determine how much to use. I wish i could tell you how much was in each lemon, but there are tests that show the amount we assume to be in them isn’t usually the case. If they are grown conventionally with chemicals, it’s even less than organic and much less than biodynamically grown lemons.
I forgot to mention.
I use a bucket, so please guide me for how much of lemon juice for a bucket of water.
How about neutralizing chlorine in Lycra bathing suits?
If you mean from the water soaking into it, I would imagine that soaking it in a tub or sink full of water and then adding ascorbic acid should do the trick.
I have been using Vitamin C to make sure the Kefir I make is not adversely affected by washing the glass containers in chlorinated water. I wash them with the regular water but I make sure to do a final rinse with water that has been treated with Vitamin C and/or vinegar to get make sure my probiotics are not getting harmed in the container.
That’s a fantastic idea!
Hey Anonymous ! You and I are in the same boat…Water Kefir. My water kefir grains have been having a hard time lately, I assume because of the chlorine / chloramine in our tap water.
I found out recently that the 24 hour aeration does not eliminate the chloramine so I surfed on to this page and “now we know” . 🙂
Thanks Jennifer and friends for this very helpful discussion.
I hope it helps. 🙂
do you think orange or lemon oils (like from Young Living or other Co.) would neutralize or do you think in the distillery process the heat would ruin the “ascorbic acid” properties?
There isn’t any Vitamin C in essential oils based on GC/MS reports, so I would stick to good old ascorbic acid. 🙂
Would citric acid also work?
The chemistry of the acid is different, and I don’t believe it would be able to perform the same role.
Why do angry, Allison? LOL
I am wondering if there is any easy way to remove chlorine from edible olive oil.
I have never heard of olive oil being contaminated with chlorine.