Why I Keep Sports Research Vitamin C in My Kitchen

I bought Sports Research vitamin C twelve months ago, and it is the newest thing in my cabinet. I am 63. I retired from a middle school library three years ago, and I now spend a fair amount of my mornings reading labels the way I used to read reference books: slowly, with a pencil, and with the suspicion that the fine print is where the real story is.

I live alone in Dayton, in a small two bedroom house with books on every wall and one gray tabby named Dewey who thinks the kitchen counters belong to him. That is why every bottle I own lives behind a closed cabinet door, to the left of the sink, well away from the stove. Dewey has never had a vitamin and never will.

I want to say the honest thing right at the top, because you will not hear it from a bottle. I cannot tell you I feel a difference from any one bottle, and I would not trust anyone who says they can. What I can tell you is what the label says, what the capsule is like to swallow, how the jar holds up in a cabinet, and how long it lasts. That is the whole of my expertise, and it is enough to make a buying decision.

The Sports Research jar is 240 veggie capsules, and the direction on it is one capsule one to three times daily, with or without food. I take one, at breakfast, and never more. I am not going to tell you what to take. Ask your own doctor or pharmacist about that, and ask before you start anything new, especially if you are on a prescription, pregnant, or managing a health condition.

I cannot tell you I feel a difference from any one bottle, and I would not trust anyone who says they can. What I can judge is the label, the capsule, the jar, and whether I actually keep it up.

Here is what made me buy it after twelve months of looking at the shelf. The ingredient list is short. Vitamin C as ascorbic acid, in a vegan capsule, gluten free, no flavoring. I read a lot of vitamin labels and the ones I put back down are usually the ones with a paragraph of extras I cannot pronounce and do not need.

The bottle also says it supports immune health, with an asterisk. That asterisk means the FDA has not evaluated the statement, and the product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. I want that written down plainly, because a bottle that says it supports something can be read two ways and only one of them is true.

The capsule is large. I am not going to pretend otherwise. I take it with a full glass of water at about eight in the morning, with my breakfast, and it goes down fine, but if you struggle with big pills you should know before you order. The jar is the other thing. It is taller than my other bottles, about six inches, and it takes up more room in that cabinet than I expected. Not a deal breaker. Just true.

A jar lasts me about eight months at one capsule a day, and I am on my second. Eight months is a long time to live with a purchase, which is exactly why I like it. I am not restocking every few weeks, and I am not standing in the aisle wondering whether I should switch to something else.

There is one more thing I did with the pencil. My multivitamin already has some vitamin C in it, and I found that on the label and wrote both numbers on my index card and took the card to my doctor at my yearly physical. She has seen all of it. Her being fine with it was a decision for me, made with her, and it is not a recommendation for you.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to turn the jar around before you buy it. Read the suggested use line, read the ingredient list, and notice what is not in there. With this one, that is a short list, a vegan capsule, and a direction that fits on one line. Those are the things I can check with my own eyes.

I would tell you that a 1000 mg capsule is more than what sits in my multivitamin, and that I asked my doctor about that rather than deciding it myself. I would say the same to you. Bring your list, or your index card, or your phone with the bottle in your hand. The pharmacist at my grocery store has answered dumber questions from me than the one you are about to ask.

I would also tell you not to buy a jar this size unless you have thought about whether you will keep it up. 240 capsules is a commitment to a spot in your morning. Mine sits in the AM lid of a blue plastic pill box I fill on Sunday evenings at this same table, along with three other things at breakfast. The magnesium waits for dinner, because my pharmacist suggested keeping it away from the multivitamin with iron. That is my routine. Yours will look different, and it should.

And I would tell you that my opinion of Sports Research is an opinion formed by one woman with a pencil in Dayton, Ohio. It is worth about what you paid for it. Ask your own doctor or pharmacist, and if you want the longer version of how this jar has held up over a year, that is written down too.