Easily — half a yellow capsicum clears the entire Australian RDI several times over.
Watch capsicum and kiwifruit prices →Can you get it from food?
This is the least difficult on the list. Yellow capsicum carries about 160 mg per 100 g, orange around 121 mg, red about 81 mg. Green is the outlier at roughly 17 mg — a tenfold difference for what most people treat as the same vegetable. Green kiwifruit runs about 93 mg per 100 g and gold kiwifruit about 161 mg. Against a 45 mg RDI, a single serve of almost any of these does the whole job. Matching the 250 mg in the Longevity Mix takes more — roughly 160 g of yellow capsicum, or two to three gold kiwifruit — but that's matching a dose five times higher than the requirement.
| Food | To match the dose | |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow capsicum | ~160 g for 250 mg | ~160 mg/100 g — the densest common source |
| Gold kiwifruit | ~2–3 fruit for 250 mg | ~161 mg/100 g; one serve is already twice the RDI |
| Orange capsicum | ~200 g for 250 mg | ~121 mg/100 g |
| Green kiwifruit | ~270 g for 250 mg | ~93 mg/100 g |
| Green capsicum | ~1.5 kg for 250 mg | ~17 mg/100 g — nearly 10x weaker than yellow |
Every meaningful source is a plant food, so this is one where plant-based diets have the advantage.
What the research actually shows
Vitamin C is an established essential nutrient with a formal Australian requirement, so the question isn't whether it does something — it's how much you actually need. The Nutrient Reference Values set the Australian RDI at 45 mg/day for adults, with an Estimated Average Requirement of 30 mg. The Blueprint dose of 250 mg is roughly five and a half times the RDI. Most recent trial evidence examines vitamin C in clinical settings, and those outcomes are restricted representations we can't discuss here.
On certainty: Australian and New Zealand intake data reviewed in a 2025 scoping review put deficiency and inadequacy in context internationally. The practical point stands regardless: 45 mg is a low bar, and ordinary fruit and veg clear it without effort.
The studies referenced
-
Vitamin C — Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand
Sets the Australian adult RDI at 45 mg/day, with an EAR of 30 mg/day. -
The community prevalence of vitamin C deficiency and inadequacy — how does Australia compare with other nations? A scoping review
Reviews community prevalence of deficiency and inadequacy, placing Australia in international context. -
The bioavailability of vitamin C from kiwifruit
Examined absorption of vitamin C delivered as whole kiwifruit rather than as a supplement.