“Natural” Vitamin C

By Atom Bergstrom

Atom’s Blog

If you believe that Royal Navy surgeon James Lind (1716-1794) was the first person to discover that citrus fruit prevented scurvy, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

The ancient Egyptians (1500 B.C.), ancient Indians (400 B.C.), and other previous civilizations knew just as much as Dr. Lind did, and probably more so.

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Howerde E. Sauberlich (A History of Scurvy and Vitamin C,” Vitamin C in Health and Disease, 1997) wrote …

“In 1227 Gilbertus de Aguila recognized, from his experience of a voyage to Palestine, clinical scurvy and ‘advised [voyagers] to carry an ample supply of apples, pears, lemons, and muscatels as well as other fruits and vegetables’.”

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According to Adano Ley (Swami Nitty-Gritty) …

“We don’t suffer from lack of eating. We suffer from potluck eating.”

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Vitamin C is a wastebasket term for a variety of substances.

The term “vitamin C” is like the proverbial finger pointing at the Moon.

Corporate marketers and theatrical magicians have something in common — misdirection.

Misdirection is “a form of deception in which the performer draws audience attention to one thing to distract it from another.”

Read the term “vitamin C,” and don’t focus on the product.

Hear the term “vitamin C,” and don’t focus on the product.

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According to Vitamin C in Health and Disease, 1997 …

Vitamin C is a “Generic descriptor for all compounds exhibiting qualitatively the biological activity of ascorbic acid.”

Gilbertus de Aguila cured scurvy without knowing L-ascorbic acid is (allegedly) 2,3-didehydro-L-threo-hexono-1,4-lactone.

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It takes just 10 milligrams of vitamin C a day to cure scurvy (fewer than 20,000 U.S. cases per year).

The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamin C is 75 milligrams a day for an adult female and 90 milligrams a day for an adult male — one orange provides over 50% for the latter.

One potato contains almost as much — MUCH MORE if you measure a potato’s dehydroascorbic acid, its active metabolic form.

Glutamine, an amino acid contraindicated by Dr. Ray Peat, converts vitamin C’s metabolic form back into its nonmetabolic form.

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According to Haidut (Georgi Dinkov) …

“Ray is not a fan of glutamine, as it is known to stimulate cancer growth.”

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Ask me for some “links” to Dr. Peat’s opinions about supplements, especially vitamin C, and I’ll be glad to supply them in the Comment section below.

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The RDA has been called the “Ridiculously Dogmatic Assertions” by supplement spin doctors.

If you think you need more than 90 milligrams a day, get it from FOOD, not from “natural” supplements.

Why?

Here’s just one typical example.

According to ResearchGate (2020) …

“Genencor International Inc. devised a completely biological process to make ascorbic acid (vitamin C). The enzyme was found in DNA extracted and purified from environmental samples. Using primers from a DKGR gene from Corynebacterium and what appeared to be a closely related morphine dehydrogenase gene from Pseudomonas putida, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques were used to obtain usable quantities of the gene encoding the enzyme. The gene was used to produce the enzyme in recombinant Escherichia coli and other host organisms.”

PCR?

According to the Smithsonian Institute Archives (2004) …

“Kary Mullis invented the PCR technique in 1985 while working as a chemist at the Cetus Corporation, a biotechnology firm in Emeryville, California. The procedure requires placing a small amount of the DNA containing the desired gene into a test tube. A large batch of loose nucleotides, which link into exact copies of the original gene, is also added to the tube. A pair of synthesized short DNA segments, that match segments on each side of the desired gene, is added. These “primers” find the right portion of the DNA, and serve as starting points for DNA copying. When the enzyme Thermus aquaticus (Taq) is added, the loose nucleotides lock into a DNA sequence dictated by the sequence of that target gene located between the two primers.”

Recombinant Escherichia coli?

According to ScienceDaily (May 23, 2018) …

“A metabolic research group [The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology] has developed a recombinant E. coli strain that biosynthesizes 60 different nanomaterials covering 35 elements on the periodic table. Among the elements, the team could biosynthesize 33 novel nanomaterials for the first time, advancing the forward design of nanomaterials through the biosynthesis of various single and multi-elements.”

Recombinant E. coli can make just about anything nowadays, including most supplements.

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Thanks to genetically modified organisms, vitamin C is dirt cheap.

Here’s hoping Big Pharma passed those savings on to you.
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