Michael V said:
mollwollfumble said:
I just had a ridiculous idea.
What if Linus Pauling’s claim that Vitamin C was good for colds was based on the fact that food additive 220 (or similar 221 to 228) was frequently added to Vitamin C, and sometimes still is added to foods rich in Vitamin C. Food additive 220 stabilises Vitamin C, and is also well known as an effective antimicrobial (anti-fungal, antibacterial and quite possibly anti-viral as well).
In which case Vitamin C is useless for colds, as was proved by subsequent research.
But food additive 220 helps to prevent and cure colds.
As one study showed that 30% of colds were associated with some form of coronavirus, it makes sense to test to see if food additive 220 (and similar 221 to 228) can help to prevent or cure Covid.
?
Yep, I agree. Ridiculous.
Food additive 300 is vitamin C – added as a preservative to food, often in significant quantities.
The sulphur-bearing compounds (220, 221 and 228) are sulphite sterilisers. They are generally used to clean equipment and containers, but must be declared as a food additive, because they remain in minute amounts. (Equipment and containers are not rinsed after sterilising.)
The 220 to 228 group used to be used to stabilise Vitamin C, didn’t they? Perhaps as recently as the time of Linus Pauling. Otherwise, Vitamin C goes off very fast (as we know from incidents of Scurvy). They stabilise Vitamin C against oxidation and chemical attack as well as against fungi and bacterial attack.
220, sulfur dioxide, has been approved in Australia for frozen avocado, beer & other brewed products, dehydrated vegetables and fruits, cooked manufactured meat, all sorts of fruity drinks, gelatine, glucose syrup, low cal jam, soft drink, uncooked sausage meat, vinegar and wine.
I don’t know whether 220 (or similar) is still used for any of those. Highest allowed concentrations in Australia are (or were) in dried fruit (0.3%), dehydrated vegetables (0.15%), gelatine (0.1%), with lowest allowed concentration in beer (0.025%).
For curing the common cold, you’d want a version that releases SO2 in the upper respiratory tract (nose and throat) rather than relying on stomach acid for the release.