Fuel your life with the purest vitamins
Nov 3rd 2025
Gut Flora. . .The Key to Overall Health
. . . and how Vitamin C is essential in maintaining gut flora balance
When we think of bacteria, we usually think of the bad ones that cause disease, or sometimes death. Bad bacteria—like botulinum, E. coli, salmonella, and streptococci—disrupt our body’s normal functioning when they injure cells and tissues, compromise its immune system, and deplete vital nutrients.
But most bacteria in our body are harmless, and actually essential to our survival. Like the bacteria—along with other microorganisms—that make up our intestinal microflora, or gut flora. These helpful bacteria in our digestive tract play a key role in our overall health by synthesizing nutrients from our diet and making them available to cells, protecting against foreign invaders, preventing inflammation, directing metabolism to regulate weight, and ensuring digestive waste is easy to eliminate.
Our gut flora is constantly under assault
There is a strong connection between the kind of food we eat and what happens in our gut. The balance of the bacteria in our gut is extremely sensitive to the kind of diet we eat. An overload of toxins—like processed foods, antibiotics, GE foods, dangerous food chemicals, and more—can destroy healthy bacteria and feed the bad bacteria. And, even a slight imbalance in the microflora can result in serious and sometimes even life-threatening digestive conditions.
Some experts estimate 80 percent of our immune system is located in the gut. Therefore, constant rebalancing of healthy bacteria is important in preventing not just digestive issues, but virtually all disease.
Vitamin C is critical to gut health
If you’ve been with us for any length of time, you know that toxicity is one of two causes of all disease. And your gut is the primary area of exchange between you and the environment. When toxins enter the gut, they produce free radicals that disrupt the activity of gut flora and damage gut tissue. Vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant, is the single most important nutrient you can use to neutralize the harmful effects toxins have on gut flora. Why? Because vitamin C interacts with toxins to render them harmless, repairs damaged cells, reduces inflammation, and restores immunity. In short, vitamin C allows the gut to restore the balance of friendly bacteria, so they can do their important work of keeping us in good health.
Best sources of Vitamin C
As always, it’s best to get your nutrients from raw, organic, whole foods. Cruciferous vegetables—like kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage—are especially effective in restoring a healthy gut. They are chock full of vitamin C (among others), minerals, fiber, and disease-fighting phytochemicals. Other excellent food sources of vitamin C are bell peppers (red, green, or yellow), strawberries, tomatoes, berries, cantaloupe, grapefruit, honeydew, nectarines, orange, and papaya.
Unfortunately, due the compromised state of our food supply, most of us don't get enough vitamin C in our diet. This is why it is necessary to supplement. We recommend adding an organic-based and biologically formulated vitamin C supplement to your daily food routine.
What if you’re continually plagued by chronic disease?
If you suffer from chronic disease of any kind, Beyond Health recommends you pay special attention to your vitamin C status. Vitamin C is one of the most important health-enhancing and disease-fighting molecules you can put into your body. The average person should probably be on about six grams per day, and if you are not in good health, consider going to bowel tolerance. Bowel tolerance means take as much as you can without getting loose stools.
Additionally, evidence suggests using a low-calorie, non-digestible carbohydrate supplement, such as FOS, can nourish the friendly bacteria in your gut to boost immunity and jumpstart your digestive system. Regular ingestion of a probiotic, such as Beyond Health Probiotic Formula, is also recommended.