Handbook of Vitamin C Research

272Alan M. Preston, Luis Vázquez Quiñones, Cynthia M. Pérez et al.with lower vitamin C content. The simple addition of a fruit or vitamin C–fortified beverageversus a soft drink or a cookie can be all that is needed to dramatically increase daily intakeof vitamin C. This message should be directed to all caregivers, whether smokers ornonsmokers, that healthy snack food choices could make a major difference in benefitingtheir children‘s nutritional status.ConclusionWe have studied the effect of high and low exposure to environmental tobacco smoke inchildren on their consumption of vitamin C-containing foods and at which daily meals thevitamin C-containing foods are eaten. Children with high exposure consumed foods with alower vitamin C-content than did children with low smoke exposure. Meal patterns show thatbreakfast provided the greatest percentage of total daily vitamin C for both exposure groupswith lunch and dinner providing lesser but similar amounts. The major difference in thepercent and amount of daily intake was in snacks. Children with high exposure consumed15% of their daily total as snacks while children with low exposure consumed 26%. Thisfinding suggests that selection of nutritive snacks could greatly improve the overall diet, andthat this message should be directed even more emphatically at children with high smokeexposure.AcknowledgementsThis project was supported by the National Research Initiative of the USDA CooperativeState Research, Education and Extension Service, grant no. 2003-35200-13590. The authorswish to thank the Department of Pediatrics, University of Puerto Rico for providing access topatients at their satellite facility, the Cataño Health Center personnel for their help insampling and María Rivera for manuscript preparation.References[1] Bourquin A, Musmanno E. Preliminary report on the effect of smoking on the ascorbicacid content of whole blood. Amer. J. Digest. Dis. 1953; 20: 75-7.[2] Taber RI, Larson PS. In vivo and in vitro studies on the question of biologicalrelationship between nicotine and ascorbic acid. Arch. Int. Pharmacodyn. Ther. 1964;151: 243-59.[3] Brook M, Grimshaw JJ. Vitamin C concentration of plasma and leukocytes as related tosmoking habit, age, and sex of humans. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1968; 21: 1254-8.[4] Pelletier O. Smoking and vitamin C levels in humans. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 1968; 21:1259-67.[5] Pelletier O. Vitamin C and cigarette smokers. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1975; 258: 156-68.