“New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.”
– John Locke
(1632-1704, English Philosopher)
Nutrition
Like most people in the U.S. during my adult life, I have had a mild interest in nutrition. It is intuitively obvious that eating is important! The popular media produce a constant flow of articles discussing various aspects of nutrition and its possible effects on our health. Indeed, the “average American” diet has changed somewhat as a result of this long-term devotion to the topic – there is a definite interest in a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet (we will discuss this in the heart disease section).
Doctors
While I am encouraged by the fact that these subjects are of interest, I am dismayed by the lack of basic understanding there is in nutrition generally. I have had a number of “family” doctors over the years and not a single time has a single one of them even mentioned nutrition unless I brought it up! And when I do (I won’t stop) it becomes apparent that doctors in general know very little about nutrition. As it turns out, the medical establishment does not study nutrition any more than the average person (probably less, since they are so busy keeping up with the medical literature).
The discoverer of vitamin C,
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, M.D., Ph.D., Nobel Laureate stated:
- “All the same, I always had the feeling that not enough use was made of it [vitamin C] for supporting human health. The reasons are rather complex. The medical profession itself took a very narrow and wrong view. Lack of ascorbic acid caused scurvy, so if there was no scurvy there was no lack of ascorbic acid. Nothing could be clearer than this. The only trouble was that scurvy is not a first symptom of lack but a final collapse, a pre mortal syndrome, and there is a very wide gap between scurvy and full health. But nobody knows what full health is!”
My Awakening
In 1991 I was visiting a new local bookstore (I had a coupon). I spotted Linus Pauling’s book, How to Live Longer and Feel Better. I had heard of Pauling and since living longer and feeling better sounded desirable, I bought the book. I was captivated. Pauling presents the case for Vitamin C supplementation so well and with so much evidence that this is the first book I now recommend. I found it amazing that something so important and so basic to our well-being is virtually unknown to the general public.
I have been taking about 14,000 -18,000mg of Vitamin C everyday (more if I feel sickness coming on) ever since. I now have a large bookshelf devoted to health and nutrition. I talk to anyone who will listen. This is why I have started this web site. To try to improve the level of knowledge about nutrition for as many people as possible so that they will make more informed decisions about their diet and health.
Why Vitamin C
While it is somewhat of a disservice to discuss one nutrient exclusively since our body’s chemistry requires a long list of nutrients working in unison, Vitamin C stands out due to its importance and almost universal shortage. My own experience has convinced me of the importance of much larger quantities of Vitamin C than I was getting in my diet. I have had only three colds since starting on my C regimen (1991).
Vitamin C has been linked to longevity. Read Epidemiology Shows That Vitamin C Helps Us Live Longer: An Interview With Dr. James E. Enstrom.