Evolution and nutritional needs

[barbitu8]

@Quercus

And, I don’t know much about the particular biochemistry of vitamin C, but it’s not completely far-fetched to think that there might be some advantage to getting rid of the gene to synthesize vitamin C. For instance, the enzyme that creates vitamin C might interfere chemically with some other important reactions in the cell, and dropping the vitamin C enzyme might allow the other reactions to be much more efficient in some way.

Dr. Linus Pauling maintained that we lost the ability to synthesize vitamin C because we were getting enough from our foods and synthesizing C would be a waste of energy. (BTW, he didn’t say “vitamin” C because he thought that C is a hormone.)