Emergen-C is a great natural product to have around your house, especially during cold season. Drink a glass (one packet mixed with 8 oz of water) a day to keep your immune system built up or increase your intake at the first signs of a cold (which is what we do at our house!). Pumped full of 1000 mg of vitamin C, it also has a good portion of energy boosting B vitamins, in addition to various minerals and electrolytes. This will keep you healthy or kick out those nasty colds quickly! It is a fun and fizzy drink with a very pleasant taste. Instead of buying the children’s version, which is basically just half the vitamin C mg count, I just give Karis a half pack of this standard product, keeping the cost down. She loves it! Our favorite way of taking it is in combination with orange juice when we have that around. We buy a box for $7.99 at our local Trader Joe’s, which has the best price in my understanding, and lasts us a good few months. Our favorite flavor is raspberry. Other carriers include Fred Meyer Nutrition, or Amazon here: Emergen-C. Your local Safeway or Wal-mart also may carry it. This is definitely far more natural, frugal and effective than all those cold/flu remedies available on the marketplace. In my opinion and experience, this is far more effective than Airborne!
It is definitely worth a try, so sign up for a free sample at Emergen-C!
Ah, this is wonderful. Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
My midwife recommended I take this while pregnant to ward off infection, but also because vitamin C helps keep your tissues elastic and assists your body in absorbing iron (mine was low). I like the tropical flavor best. I still keep it around and take it whenever I’m feeling run down or like I may be getting sick.
We are trying to stay proactive this flu season and have started Emergen-C early. My hubby and I take it daily and we just found Emergen-C for KIDS at our local wal-mart………..WOOOOHOOOOO! Our boys love the orange/pineapple flavor,they don’t mind taking it daily. It’s a win/win for mommy! Now let’s hope we get thru the flu and H1N1 season.
I use emergen-c when I feel the first onset of sore throat/cold ect. I really think it makes a difference! My throat feels better right away. My co-worker told me about it last year & I tried it & never got sick! I think the trick is to use it before or just as you feel yourself getting symptoms… & i’ts super yummy
Just wanted to add another Yay Emergen-C! comment
I had never heard of it until my midwife recommended it a couple months ago. I know every pregnancy is different, but my midwife recommends it for all her pregnant mamas, as it has no potentially harmful medications in it like Tylenol or other OTC cold medicines.
I’m wondering about Juice Plus, too. I’ve heard it recommended from several people, but everyone I know who takes it is sick all the time!
Thanks for this posting. Taking Vit. C is a great idea, but I believe that taking it in a chewable or liquid form can eventually damage your tooth enamel. It seems wise to not use Emergen-C as your exclusive source. If you do a search on “enamel” at http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/ you can find more on that subject.
When I was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue, I learned that the highest concentration of Vit C in your body is in your adrenal glands. They are your “stress-busters” and are key in fighting off illness and dealing with all sorts of stressors. The Influenza virus actually attacks the adrenal glands directly, so taking high doses of Vit C helps immensely. Dr. James Wilson (adrenalfatigue.org, he has an N.D., Ph.D. and M.D.) says that you can get symptoms of scurvy if you reduce your Vit C dose more than 500mg every 3-5 days (formula newborns and just-weaned nurslings too!); so it has to be taken consistently. He also recommends (as did Linus Pauling) taking it to bowel tolerance: in the a.m., start taking 500mg C w/250mg bioflavonoids every hour until your stool becomes loose. Total it up and subtract one hourly dose. That is the dose you should take daily (divided 3x and timed release). Doses often range from 2,000 – 20,000mg of C plus 1,000-10,000mg bioflavonoids to help you use the C better. Vit C is water soluble and your body excretes what you don’t use.
We buy dried rose hips from Azure Standard and other places, the powder tastes great naturally by itself, and it has lots of Vitamin C. I personally would rather take that then Emergen C, especially for small children.
Our Naturopath also strongly recommended Emergen-C’s kids multi-vitamin (strawberry) flavored to help our kiddos stay healthy during the crazy winter months. It really seems to help and it is easy to just add some of the other drops (like vitamin d) to their “vitamin juice” in the morning.
I haven’t tried this, I’ll have to check it out. Thank you for sharing. I hate getting sick, so anything that helps is great.
I love Emergen-C! My favorite flavor is Pink Lemonade, which is also their Breast Cancer Awareness flavor. I take both Airborne and Emergen-C, and will drink Odwalla’s Citrus C (used to be C-Monster) at the first sign of a cold. Sometimes I do Zicam as well. I like Emergen-C because it’s much cheaper, so it can be used more and more often *and* it’s a great rehydration drink. We drink it instead of Gatorade.
You all make this sound so wonderful! I’m going to get some next time I’m out!
Costco often carries this as well…in a big box. No choice on the flavor just tangarine and raspberry, but I’m not complaining. I also love to have this around to sip on durring labor. I have heard that vit.C can help with pain. I am not sure if it worked or not, but it was refreshing and energizing!
We have a large family of 11 people. When one gets sick the family sickness can last a long time!
At the first sign of illness, we start taking lysine, Vit D3 and zinc, which I buy through Vitacost.com. This last December we added Emergen-C to that protocol. I purchase the Emergen-C at Sams or Costco. We don’t have a Trader Joes here : (
I used to be the first one to have a cold turn into a horrible bronchial cough. This fall, under heavy stress and exposure to viruses, taking these 4 things helped me to keep my cold/cough symptoms to the very early stage signs. The ones who were not quite so faithful to take their immune building supplements, ended up being quite sick for quite a while.
For stomach bugs, we take charcoal capsules at the first signs. This helps to bind the toxins in the stomach/intestines so they are limited in their scope.
Mommaof10
http://PlymouthRockRanch.com
Recording the Faithfulness and Provision of God for Future Generations
What are charcoal capsules?
Doesn’t charcoal also help, well, plug things up a bit? Or did I misunderstand?
My husband and youngest son enjoy drinking it (or Ultima) with carbonated water with their dinner at night.
Thanks for your post. What are your thoughts on Juice Plus?
I have never tried Juice Plus – any other opinions out there, ladies?
anyone- thoughts on juice plus?????
I took Juice Plus for a long time a couple of years ago. I was never healthier than during that time – hardly ever got sick. It also really helped some digestive issues I was having. I’d go back on it if it weren’t so expensive.
We love this stuff at our house too!
I don’t know if you have a Sam’s Club near you but that’s where we buy it. They have a huge box of 80 packates for $15.00!
I give it to my 3 year old and he calls it his “fizzy drink”. He loves it.
My family has been taking emergen-c for years and we love it. Since it isn’t exactly cheap, we only take it when we feel a cold coming on. When I’m sick and wake up with a sore throat, the first thing I do is down a glass of emergen-c and the fizziness of it really helps!
I’ve never actually tested whether airborne or emegen-c work more effetively, but Airborne taste so terrible compared to emergen-c that we would never consider using it as we do the emregen-c.
Lindsay-you can also mix it with citrucel if you have to take that!
I found out that the raspberry Emergen-C (which I don’t love by itself) is actually very palatable with the citrucel (which I also don’t love by itself!) And it kills two birds with one stone. 
This stuff really works. A friend told me about it a couple of years ago. My immunity was shot and I kept catching everything. I didn’t really think it was going to work but, anything was worth a try. To my amazement it really helped. When I start to feel a cold coming on I start taking it and my symptoms aren’t near as bad and the duration much shorter.
Can you take this while pregnant?
I don’t see why not, but the box says to first consult your health care practitioner as most everything does.
We keep a lot of this in the house as well. I drank it a couple of time per day after the birth of our baby to ward off infection. It’s yummy, too. The only thing I don’t like is all of the sugar.
The sugar is unfortunate, but thankfully it is not high fructose corn syrup or an artificial sweetener of any kind.
I think I read something about the sugar being a carrier and catalyst for some of the vitamins to do their thing, but I could be wrong. I’m just glad, like you said, it’s not HFC!
Just be careful giving Karis 1/2 the packet. The main reason MOST children’s cold medicines were pulled because parents were giving their child too much medicine, and overdosing their child.
To me, there’s a reason why they have children’s versions of medicines.