Should You Gulp or Sip Your Vitamin C?
By Maiara Costa Telmer
Elementary Category (Grades 4-6)
Experiment | Chemistry
Vitamin C is an important nutrient that keeps us healthy and active. It is mostly found in citrus fruits. Unfortunately, our bodies do not make Vitamin C, which is why we need to eat fruits and vegetables that contain it. The goal of this project is to investigate how fast Vitamin C degrades in a cup of orange juice: fresh-squeezed orange juice and Tropicana juice at room temperature, cold refrigerator temperature like Canada, and hot temperature like Brazil. I used a method called titration, a method of gradual addition (drops) of iodine to cause a colour change in the orange juice. The results showed that significant losses of Vitamin C only occurred after 24 hours for both Tropicana and Fresh juice, a little bit more if you live in Brazil, where it is hot. If you live in Canada, at room temperature, or you keep your juice in the refrigerator, the Vitamin C is preserved longer. Also, my results showed that Fresh juice has more Vitamin C than Tropicana, and it is, therefore, your best choice. Should I gulp or sip my Vitamin C? You can sip your Vitamin C.
