Vitamin C is promoted so much that many food companies add it to their products. Most people think that sounds great, but it can be a potentially dangerous or even deadly combination with certain foods. A common preservative used in foods and beverages called sodium benzoate that can be a deadly cocktail when mixed with vitamin C. Sodium benzoate (SB), also called benzoate of soda or E211, is in juices, pickles, soft drinks, soy sauce, mustard, duck sauce, salad dressings, jams and other ingestible products. Some naturally occurring vitamin C is in many canned or bottled juices. It is in soft drinks, snack foods, cereals, and added to many supplements.
When we mix it with ascorbic acid (vitamin C), a chemical reaction occurs and it creates “benzene,” which is a proven carcinogen. A serious discovery upon testing 84 different soft drinks, found that 54 of them contained benzene. Some had levels 16 times higher than what the government allows in drinking water. Even though the laws state that drinking water should have less than 5 ppb of benzene, there is no legal limit on benzene in other drinks.
