I remember when vitamin gummies first became commercially available. I thought they were the coolest things since sliced bread. Knowing what I do now though, I’ll gladly pass on them.
The Nasty Truth About Vitamins
Conventional vitamins, gummy and regular, both contain loads of yucky ingredients like corn syrup and refined sugar. And those “natural flavors?” Natural strawberry, raspberry and vanilla flavors commonly come from castoreum, a secretion from a beaver’s anal sac. Yes, you read that right.
What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You
Studies have shown that not only do conventional vitamins not work nearly as well as believed; they can actually hurt you. Vitamins found in food aren’t isolated and synthetic like their chain health store counterparts. This study found vitamin C in citrus 1210% more bioavailable than isolated ascorbic acid!
Superstar Immune-Boosting Ingredients
There are several reasons why these gummies are so great. Gelatin helps combat inflammatory and degenerative diseases, relieves joint pain, and builds strong hair and nails. Don’t just let the kids have these, though! Gelatin (use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!) is chock full of collagen for healthier skin. Want to help nix cellulite and stretch marks too? Done and done.
Orange peel, hibiscus and rosehips are all very high in vitamin C. Rosehips are rich in bioflavonoids, which help the body better absorb and utilize vitamin C. They also strengthen connective tissue and capillaries. Vitamin C is required for the biosynthesis of collagen (use the coupon KS10 for 10% off!), which is perfect since we’re pairing it with this gelatin!
My son loves these gummies so much that I keep a steady supply on hand. I feel good knowing that not only does he love eating them, but they are completely safe and nutritious. The beetroot is optional but gives it more color.
This recipe provides about 50 mg total of vitamin C, most of the daily recommended 60 mg. Steeping the herbs vs. boiling the herbs preserves vitamin C. Heat the steeped liquid only enough to dissolve the gelatin. If you have cold-dissolve gelatin you can use that instead. See the comments below for more info.
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Healthy Homemade Vitamin C Gummies Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 16 squares 1x
- Category: Supplement
Description
Forget Vitamin C capsules, tablets or pills – make your own immune-boosting, vitamin C gummies!
Ingredients
- 1 Tbs. rosehips (20 mg)
- 1 Tbs. orange peel (8.2 mg)
- 1 Tbs. hibiscus (3 mg)
- 1/4 tsp. beetroot (optional)
- 1/3 c. boiling water
- 3 Tbs. lemon juice (21 mg)
- 1 Tbs. honey
- 3 Tbs. gelatin (or the Bernard Jensen brand at Radiant Life)
- 2 drops food-grade lemon essential oil
Instructions
- Pour the boiling water over the herbs and let steep for 10 minutes. Strain and pour into a pot.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk over medium heat (do NOT bring to a boil!) until well combined.
- Pour into candy molds or ice cube trays. You can also use a glass dish and then cut into squares once cooled.
- Cool in the freezer for 5-10 minutes and store in the fridge.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 square
- Calories: 18
- Sugar: 2.3 g
- Sodium: 7 mg
- Fat: 0 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 2.3 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 2.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
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Want to eat two one day and skip the next? Check out our post on how often you have to take vitamin supplements to find out that and much more about your health!
Resources:
Vitamin A Toxicity, Holistic Squid
The Truth About Vitamins and Supplements, Brian Clement
Vitamin C, National Institutes of Health
Rosehips, Nutrition Data
Nutritional Herbology : A Reference Guide to Herbs, Mark Pederson
Jamie is the wife of Devon and mommy to Liam. She studied Journalism at Grace College and is currently working on a Master Herbalist certificate. She started an all-natural body care business, This & That Herbal, and is the development director for A’amarna Toothpaste. Follow her as she explores how to be a good steward of her God-given resources and shares it at How To Just About Anything.
I happened to have all the ingredients, though my rosehips were powdered and I probably could have used less. I used verjus instead of lemon juice because of a citrus sensitivity, but left in the orange peel since it is not severe. My kids loved them!
I found this to be the most helpful excerpt for me when searching on temperature and vit C:
It is important to choose a suitable method of food preparation. When cooking vegetables, one should seek to minimize or not discard the water used in their preparation, e.g. by frying the food – which unfortunately increases fat content, steam cooking or by making soup.
Recent observations suggest that the impact of temperature and cooking on vitamin C may have been overestimated:
Since it is water soluble, vitamin C will strongly leach into the cooking water while cooking most vegetables — but this doesn’t necessarily mean the vitamin is destroyed — it’s still there, but it’s in the cooking water. (This may also suggest how the apparent misconception about the extent to which boiling temperatures destroy vitamin C might have been the result of flawed research: If the vitamin C content of vegetables (and not of the water) was measured subsequent to cooking them, then that content would have been much lower, though the vitamin has not actually been destroyed.)
Not only the temperature, but also the exposure time is significant. Contrary to what was previously and is still commonly assumed, it can take much longer than two or three minutes to destroy vitamin C at boiling point.
It also appears that cooking does not necessarily leach vitamin C in all vegetables at the same rate; it has been suggested that the vitamin is not destroyed when boiling broccoli.1, this may however just be a result of vitamin C leaching into the cooking water at a slower rate from this vegetable. Copper pots will destroy the vitamin.
Vitamin C enriched teas and infusions have increasingly appeared on supermarket shelves. Such products would be nonsense if boiling temperatures did indeed destroy vitamin C at the rate it had previously been suggested. It should be noted however that as of 2004 most academics not directly involved in vitamin C research still teach that boiling temperatures will destroy vitamin C very rapidly.
Full article found at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Metabolomics/Nutrition/Vitamin_C
Interesting, thanks Kelly! 🙂 Katie
I’d love to see a vegetarian recipe that doesn’t destroy all the vitamins.
Thanks Jamie for answering Joanna’s question! 🙂
You could use a vegan gelatin from a health food store but these are often full of unhealthy ingredients. You can also use agar powder or flakes, though you’ll need to add more since this has lemon juice. If you google “PETA gelatin substitutes” they have a very helpful article on it. I can’t link it since I’m on a phone. If you have to cook the mix to a simmer or for a long period of time in order for the vegan sub to set it would destroy most of the vitamin C though.
Agar?
Let me see if I can get Jamie to chime in on this.
Being veggie I’m not mad keen on idea of geletin… Can I use a vegetarian substitute and get the same setting results?
Oh yuck! I had no idea about the origin of those flavors. I think my kids would adore these gummies! And I actually have all the ingredients except the beetroot. Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for answering Nick Lewis’s question, Jamie – loving your recipe!
Nick Lewis, this will yield about 3-4 mg of Vitamin C per piece, depending on what size you make them. I don’t have an exact percentage for the amount that’s absorbed, but because it’s from a whole food source, not an isolated compound, and the water soluble vitamin is extracted with water before ingesting (as opposed to a powder capsule), the amount will be high.
Vitamin C should not be heated to a high temperature, but the gelatin I used does not dissolve in cold water. I heated the steeped tea so that it was very warm, but not even simmering, and briskly whisked in the gelatin just until dissolved, immediately poured into my pan. You do NOT want this mixture to boil.
If you have high quality gelatin that WILL dissolve in cold water then you could certainly wait for the steeped water to cool and proceed without heating.
As far as pouring boiling water over the herbs, every reference I’ve looked at has recommended doing it this way. The water is poured over the herbs instead of the herbs being boiled for 10 minutes in the water. To the best of my knowledge this protects the vitamin C from degrading while extracting the most from the herbs.
Nick, if you use an 8×8 pan and cut these into 16 squares each one would be a little over 3 mg of vitamin C approximately. If you do the 12 ice cube tray cavities it would be about 4 mg per piece.
I don’t have a specific percentage of the vitamin that is absorbed, but the study I found showed vitamin C from food sources, like herbs and citrus, was 1210% more bioavailable than an isolated supplement. So it would be very high
Nick Lewis I’m not positive I know the answer, but I emailed the contributing writer and asked her to pop in to chat with you, so hopefully within a day we’ll hear something. Thanks for the good question!
This is brilliant! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Amber Garrity, If you can’t find the ingredients locally, each ingredient is linked to a source at either Amazon or Mountain Rose Herbs… well everything except the boiling water. 😉
This is a new one for me but will try it out this week. I prefer using Glenbrook Farm Herbs & Such. Love the quality of their herbs and the quick turnaround is what I really appreciate with an awesome recipe waiting to be tried. Thanks.
Joy Boot Nywening sent you a pm
I was wondering the same about the vit C and the heat…but also what to sub for those of us who have citrus allergies.
I was thinking maybe the juice would work better than the oils…then you could do it cold….so the gelatin could work but the C wouldn’t be compromised….
I am no master herblist…just a mommy of kids with health issues who has learned a little along the way and I am respectfully asking. This is definitely not meant to come across as rude or unkind.
TIA
Aliyanna
If you have a citrus allergy you could sub any juice you liked for the lemon. I would also either reduce or eliminate the honey and replace it with more juice. I’ve heard pineapple juice won’t work though.
Aliyanna,
Be sure to check Jamie’s answer on the heat below too…. 🙂 Katie
Cindy Thornton Flater, can I get all these ingredients at Kens Herbs?
Wouldn’t boiling water destroy Vitamin C?
My thoughts exactly. Vitamin C degrades when heated.
Jennifer,
Check out Jamie’s reply to Ivy above…thanks! Katie
Ivy,
I wanted to make sure you saw Jamie’s reply about heat and Vit C below:
“Vitamin C should not be heated to a high temperature, but the gelatin I used does not dissolve in cold water. I heated the steeped tea so that it was very warm, but not even simmering, and briskly whisked in the gelatin just until dissolved, immediately poured into my pan. You do NOT want this mixture to boil.
If you have high quality gelatin that WILL dissolve in cold water then you could certainly wait for the steeped water to cool and proceed without heating.
As far as pouring boiling water over the herbs, every reference I’ve looked at has recommended doing it this way. The water is poured over the herbs instead of the herbs being boiled for 10 minutes in the water. To the best of my knowledge this protects the vitamin C from degrading while extracting the most from the herbs.”
Oh not at all, I wouldn’t know where to start looking for half of these!
Amber Garrity, let me know if I am being a pest. I think you need to read this too!
Is the lemon essential oil for flavor only? Is there anything like this available for a Vit. D suppliment;)?
The gummies have a sour flavor to them because of the lemon juice and herbs, but the essential oil gives them an actual lemon flavor. Like if you made key lime pie without the lime zest, just the juice. It would be sour, but not much lime flavor. It can be omitted though if you prefer.
Vitamin D (and A, E and K) is a fat soluble vitamin found in milk, butter , cod liver oil and such. Vitamin C however is water soluble and can be extracted with water. Mushrooms have some vitamin D, but that would make for some nasty jello!
You could try dumping some capsules of Vitamin D powder into this, but it would be gritty.
Robyn McLeod Yeaman
So how many milligrams of vitamin C are in each bar? and how much is thought to be absorbed of these?
ohhh!!! wow!!