Does Vitamin C Cause Mouth Sores
Every Tuesday, Britain's leading nutritionist explains how to eat your way to health. This week, why Vitamin C can give you mouth ulcers and how to give a vegetarian child a healthy, balanced diet:
I suffer constantly from mouth ulcers, and usually have one or two a week. I believe I eat fairly healthily, but would appreciate any advice on how diet can play a part in this and any foods to avoid. Liz Irvine, Chelmsford.
Mouth ulcers can be incredibly painful, so I do sympathise. The first step is to check with your dentist that you don't have any chipped teeth, as these can cause ulcers simply by damaging the mouth wall.
If you get the all-clear, call in at the health-food shop on the way home and look for a toothpaste free from sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS).
This is a foaming agent found in many toothpastes and it's thought it might reduce the protective mucous layer in the mouth. Simply changing your toothpaste may be enough to help the ulcers clear up.
Ulcers are generally not a sign of a vitamin or mineral deficiency - and anyway, you say you eat pretty well. But just to be sure that you do, keep a diet diary for a couple of weeks and write down everything you eat and drink, with rough quantities - such as 'bowl of', 'teaspoon of' - alongside.
Then, review it to see if you really do have a balanced diet. This means plenty of fresh vegetables, fruits, wholegrains and ideally some oily fish.
Sometimes mouth ulcers have a habit of appearing when one is a little run down, which is when it's even more important to eat a balanced nourishing diet. Another possible cause is vitamin C supplements.
Many people don't realise that we need only 40mg per day (30mg for children aged one to ten). Vitamin C is actually ascorbic acid, and the mouth doesn't respond well to too much acid.
So if you're overshooting the recommended daily intake - which is easy to do, as most supplements are around the 500 to 1,000mg mark - this could be the cause of your ulcers.
Alcohol can also irritate the lining of the mouth. Although this is really a problem mainly for heavy drinkers, do watch your intake.
As for treatment, some people who suffer regularly with mouth ulcers swear by liquorice, which is a traditional remedy. Avoid the sickly commercial stuff and choose instead 'deglycyrrhizinated' liquorice, which is available from health-food stores.
Fianlly, although this is by far the least likely cause, you might have coeliac disease. This is an immunoligical condition where the body reacts badly to gluten - a protein found in wheat.
Symptoms include gut pain after eating gluten-containing foods such as bread or pasta, extreme tiredness and ulcers.
You need to see a GP for tests to confirm the diagnosis. If you do have coeliac disease, it's extremely important to avoid all foods containing gluten — but you should seek professional advice, too.
My six-year-old grandson has decided to become vegetarian. He has always enjoyed food and never refused any meals at all. But now we are struggling to feed him and worry about the nutritional value of his meals. He will eat eggs and cheese but is reluctant to have vegetable stews as he thinks they are too messy. Can you advise?
Joan Morris, Aberdeen.
There's no reason why a vegetarian child shouldn't be perfectly healthy. In fact, studies have shown that vegetarian children are more likely than other children to tuck into fruits and vegetables - which is obviously a good thing.
And the fact that your grandson is happy to eat cheese and eggs gives you some extra flexibility.
Both are great energy-providing sources of protein, and cheese is also a good source of calcium. So don't worry about the nutritional value of his meals too much.
However, you do need to make sure your grandson has a varied diet to ensure he gets the full spectrum of all the essential nutrients.
Also keep an eye on his wholemeal/wholegrain intake - too much fibre in a child's diet can leave them lacking in energy and even result in anaemia. Fibrous foods (which include fruits and vegetables) fill you up but don't contain many calories, and growing children need calories for energy.
Too much fibre can also inhibit the absorption of iron, which as well as being important for the blood, is essential for growth. So for children over five I'd suggest that only two-thirds of their bread, rice and cereals is wholemeal - the rest should be white.
While your grandson eats eggs and cheese, like all children he needs a variety of proteins in his diet to ensure that he's taking in enough amino acids (important for the muscles and immune system, among other things).
The proteins found in animal produce are what we call 'complete', meaning they contain all eight essential amino acids the body requires.
However vegetable proteins - with the exception of soya and seaweed - are 'incomplete' so don't provide all the amino acids. This means vegetarians need a variety of the different vegetable proteins (such as beans, lentils and nuts).
It used to be thought that in order for vegetarians to metabolise amino acids they had to eat their vegetable protein with a cereal, for example toast.
We now know this isn't necessary.
It's just a good idea to ensure children have as many different proteins as possible, with some cereal thrown in.
Your grandson will also need a plentiful supply of two specific minerals, calcium and iron. These are essential for building and maintaining bones and teeth, protecting against anaemia, as well as maintaining a healthy heart, strong immune system and ensuring the gut remains healthy.
It is much easier to ensure that children take in enough minerals generally if they eat dairy produce - if they won't drink milk, then give them milk, yoghurt or cheese mixed in other things.
But there are other good sources of calcium such as soya, beans, almonds, sesame seeds (which means tahini and hummus are great), sunflower seeds and green leafy vegetables.
Finally, your grandson needs to keep up his iron intake.
The iron-rich vegetarian foods are dark green leafy vegetables, seaweed, figs, barley, baked beans in tomato sauce, nuts, oatmeal, avocados, apricots, prunes, broccoli, asparagus, lentils, sunflower seeds, fortified breakfast cereals, wholemeal bread and brown rice.
To boost iron absorption, include some vitamin C-rich food with his iron-containing meal. This could be a glass of fresh juice or some fresh fruit afterwards.
ASK JANE
Do you have a nutritional question? Jane will answer a selection of readers' queries every week. Write to Jane Clarke, Good Health, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT, or e-mail jane.clarke@dailymail.co.uk Jane cannot enter into personal correspondence.
Please include contact details (not for publication). Her replies cannot apply to individual cases and should be taken in a general context.
Contact your GP with any health problems.
Does Vitamin C Cause Mouth Sores
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-482424/Why-Vitamin-C-mouth-ulcers.html
