Good C Buffered Vitamin C 500 mg – Immune Support | 60 Vegetarian Capsules

Good C is a buffered, acid-free vitamin C. Each vegetarian capsule gives you 500 mg of vitamin C from calcium poly ascorbate (which also supplies 57 mg of calcium), plus 100 mg of citrus bioflavonoid complex, 50 mg of hesperidin and 50 mg of rutin. There are 60 capsules per bottle. Vitamin C supports normal immune function, collagen formation and antioxidant protection.†

Good C is for people who want daily vitamin C without the sour bite of plain ascorbic acid. Your body can't make vitamin C, so it has to come from food or supplements. The adult RDA is 75 mg a day for women and 90 mg for men, plus another 35 mg for people who smoke, according to the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements vitamin C fact sheet. One capsule covers that several times over.

If you're in your 30s or 40s and already working on the habits that keep you strong into your 70s and 80s, the basics come first. Vitamin C is about as basic as nutrients get, and one capsule a day is an easy habit to keep.

Why people take Good C

• Immune support. Vitamin C builds up in white blood cells and supports their normal function.†
• Collagen formation. Your body needs vitamin C to make collagen, the protein that gives skin and other connective tissue its structure.†
• Antioxidant protection. Vitamin C helps protect cells from everyday oxidative stress.†
• Iron from plant foods. Taken with a meal, vitamin C helps your body absorb the non-heme iron found in plant foods.†
• A buffered, acid-free form. The vitamin C is bound to calcium instead of coming as plain ascorbic acid, for people who find straight ascorbic acid too sharp.†

What's in each serving

*Daily Value not established. Serving size: 1 vegetarian capsule. The bottle holds 60 capsules, so at one capsule per serving that's 60 servings. Other ingredients: Vegetable cellulose (preservative-free, from capsule shell), organic rice extract, cellulose, and organic rice concentrate. The label states: "NO soy, salt, yeast, gluten, milk & egg products, sugar, starch, or preservatives." It also notes that the acid-free poly ascorbate is bound with esterified niacin and a vegetable surfactant.

How Good C works

Vitamin C: what it does in your body

Vitamin C is a water-soluble antioxidant and a helper for enzymes that build things, collagen included. A 2017 review of vitamin C and immune function describes how it builds up in neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, and supports their ability to move toward and engulf microbes, and how it supports the skin's barrier function.† Skin itself holds high concentrations of vitamin C, which it uses to make collagen and for antioxidant protection, as a 2017 review of vitamin C's roles in skin explains.† Both are reviews of how vitamin C works, not promises about how you'll feel.

Why a buffered, calcium-bound form

Plain vitamin C is ascorbic acid, and it tastes like it: tart and sharp. In Good C, the vitamin C comes as calcium poly ascorbate, a buffered form in which vitamin C is bound to calcium as a mineral salt (a calcium ascorbate) instead of being a free acid. That's why the bottle says acid free, and it's where the 57 mg of calcium on the panel comes from. That calcium is a small extra (4% of the Daily Value), not a calcium supplement.

Does the form change anything inside your body? Early evidence says possibly, a little. A 2024 preliminary study comparing calcium ascorbate with ascorbic acid ran two small crossover trials in 93 healthy adults, one at 250 mg and one at 500 mg, giving each person a single dose of both forms. At 250 mg there were no differences. At 500 mg, compared with ascorbic acid, calcium ascorbate raised blood levels of dehydroascorbic acid (an oxidized form of vitamin C), increased neutrophil activity over the first 8 hours, and was linked to more natural killer cells.† It tested single doses of calcium ascorbate in general, not this exact ingredient, so read it as an early signal rather than proof.

How much your body actually absorbs

Your gut absorbs vitamin C well in moderate amounts and less efficiently in big single doses. In an NIH study of vitamin C absorption in healthy volunteers, 7 people lived in the hospital for 4 to 6 months on a diet with less than 5 mg of vitamin C a day while researchers tested seven daily doses from 30 to 2,500 mg. A single 200 mg dose was completely absorbed. At single doses of 500 mg and higher, the share absorbed dropped and the extra was passed in urine. White blood cells were saturated at 100 mg a day. At 500 mg, each Good C capsule is in the range where absorption starts to taper, so if you take more than one, spread them across the day. More isn't automatically better.

Citrus bioflavonoids, hesperidin and rutin

Bioflavonoids are plant compounds that come packaged with vitamin C in citrus fruit. Good C includes 100 mg of a citrus bioflavonoid complex plus 50 mg each of two specific flavonoids: hesperidin, the major flavonoid in oranges, and rutin, which shows up in foods like buckwheat and citrus.

Here's what the research does and doesn't show. A review of synthetic versus food-derived vitamin C, which also looked at vitamin C taken with isolated bioflavonoids, found no differences in steady blood levels in human studies, and only small, brief differences in some short-term ones. So don't count on the flavonoids in Good C to boost absorption. We also haven't found good human trials of hesperidin or rutin taken at 50 mg a day, so we don't claim a specific benefit for either one at that amount.

How to take Good C

Directions from the label: "One or more capsules daily, as a dietary supplement."

• Take it with a meal, ideally one with plant foods, since vitamin C helps your body absorb their iron.†
• If you take more than one capsule, split them between meals.
• Count all your sources. The adult upper limit for vitamin C is 2,000 mg a day from food and supplements combined, and four capsules alone would reach it. Very high intakes can cause diarrhea, nausea and cramps.

Ask your healthcare practitioner before use if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition.

Don't take our word for it

Adjectives are easy to print. Here's the process instead. We've been making supplements in Oregon since 1974.

• Verified by independent labs. ISO 17025-accredited labs check our test results.
• Every ingredient lot tested before use. Federal rules only require an identity test on incoming dietary ingredients. We test every incoming lot, the calcium poly ascorbate and flavonoids in Good C included, for identity, potency, heavy metals and microbes.
• If it misses spec, it doesn't go in a bottle. More than 99% of our tests pass, and the lots that don't are turned away.
• A certificate of analysis for every lot. Every lot of Good C gets its own CoA.

Made in the USA. Made and tested in Mt. Angel, Oregon. That's a farm town of about 3,500 in the Willamette Valley. Good C is made in our UL-certified cGMP facility, where formulators, makers and testers work under one roof and the owners work in the building too. We've been owner-run since 2017, and we're not getting old either.

Frequently asked questions

How much vitamin C is in Good C?

Each capsule has 500 mg of vitamin C, 555% of the Daily Value, from calcium poly ascorbate, which also adds 57 mg of calcium.

Is buffered vitamin C easier on the stomach?

It may be for some people, but we can't promise it. It's less acidic than plain ascorbic acid, which is why some people prefer it, but we haven't found good trials comparing stomach comfort between the two, and people vary.

When should I take Good C, and with food?

Any time of day works, since the label doesn't name a time. With a meal is a good default, and if you take more than one capsule, split them between meals.

Can I take Good C with Quercetin Zinc or a multivitamin?

Yes, as long as you add up the vitamin C. Quercetin Zinc provides 120 mg per two-capsule serving, and Men's Multi and Women's Multi each provide 120 mg per serving. One Good C plus a serving of Quercetin Zinc and a multi comes to 740 mg from supplements. The adult upper limit is 2,000 mg a day from food and supplements combined.

How long does a bottle last?

A bottle is a 60-day supply at the label's serving of one capsule a day. At two capsules a day, it lasts 30 days.

Can I take Good C with medication?

Ask your healthcare practitioner first. Vitamin C can interact with some medications, and the right amount for you depends on your situation.

Keep learning

• How we source and test raw materials before they reach a bottle
• Advanced Zinc Citrate with 50 mg of zinc per tablet
• Good Vitamin D with 50 mcg of vitamin D3 and bromelain

References

1. Carr AC et al. Vitamin C and Immune Function. Nutrients. 2017. PubMed
2. Pullar JM et al. The Roles of Vitamin C in Skin Health. Nutrients. 2017. PubMed
3. Dickerson B et al. Comparative Effectiveness of Ascorbic Acid vs. Calcium Ascorbate Ingestion on Pharmacokinetic Profiles and Immune Biomarkers in Healthy Adults: A Preliminary Study. Nutrients. 2024. PubMed
4. Levine M et al. Vitamin C pharmacokinetics in healthy volunteers: evidence for a recommended dietary allowance. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996. PubMed
5. Carr AC et al. Synthetic or food-derived vitamin C--are they equally bioavailable? Nutrients. 2013. PubMed

†These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.