Middle C

Q. In an article last month you highlighted the dangers to health of overdosing on Vitamin C. What is considered a healthy daily consumption then? 
  

A.   We now have a pretty good idea what that must have been for our Pleistocene ancestors in the savannahs of East Africa.As discussed in the Natural Eating book coming out next month, their intake would have been around 500 mg per day. Note that this was obtained in their food, drip-fed in throughout the day and of course in association with all the other micronutrients present in the vegetation. Everything we know about our biochemistry suggests that this is the optimum amount and the optimum way to obtain our vitamin C.Much more is likely to be counter-productive (last month’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice Syndrome). Much less is not enough. The FDA has recently revised upwards its minimum intake (see Nutrient Intakes) and, for the first time a maximum intake has been established. (See Micronutrient Policy)
What does this mean for the Natural Eater? Throw out the pills, just eat in accordance with our precepts and the quantity of Vitamin C will work out just right.