While exercising, I was listening to a blog interview with a vitamin C proponent–not Linus Pauling of course, but someone perhaps as obsessive. I often do not attend closely to podcasts while exercising, so I had lost the drift when I heard the guest say something like, I’ll tell you what’s unnatural: Humans lost their ability to synthesize vitamin C eons ago, though animals still can!

So many things are wrong with this statement.

Though it’s surprisingly hard to pin down, the ancestors of humans, previous to hominids or even primates, lost that ability about 61 million years ago. The ability to synthesize vitamin C, or lack thereof, has been lost and gained multiple times in different lines, leading one site to label it a neutral trait, one without obvious benefit or detriment. Sort of like my stubbornness, which sometimes helps, sometimes not so much.

Most animals can synthesize vit C, but plenty can’t, including us and most great apes. Or maybe all of the great apes. I couldn’t find a definite answer on bonobos.

Although still a topic of research, this is possibly because synthesizing vit C takes a lot of energy. Also, it may be that animals that have to acquire external vit C also recycle it, so they need less overall. Anyway, it’s a tradeoff, not a deficit.

Those who don’t think vit C is the ultimate micronutrient may also have noticed that there are lots of things we need to eat for optimal living, including nine essential amino acids one must consume every day. Really? How are we all alive? Sugar is not a source.

I also object to pegging something in nature as unnatural. Unclear on the concept.

Nutrition celebrity scientists do have a way of using odd evidence. A prominent vegan proponent points out that gorillas mostly eat plants, which is true, although they eat insects as well. His point is that if gorillas do that, so can we. What?! We are not gorillas!

Even those of us who look or act like gorillas are not gorillas. Also, just to clarify, guerrillas are not gorillas.

Gorillas also laze around most of the day, should we do that, too? If you’ve tried it for any length of time, you are probably not a prime physical specimen, and this will give you a hint as to the answer. Our cells actually cannot perform optimally if we don’t exercise. Great apes don’t have this concern, though they have plenty of other problems, mostly us-related.

Having written all this, I fear I am contributing to a glut of information. You might think I mostly object to incorrect information, and I do, but sometimes I think there is too much of all kinds, and honestly true stuff changes to false on occasion, and even the reverse. At some point, it’s paralyzing. You can’t absorb it, you can’t rate it, you can’t debate it, you can’t ignore it.

Sort of like choosing mustard in the very large grocery store. Who needs mustard anyway? I’m going home to listen to some music.