>Q:  Liza May <[log in to unmask]>
>    
>    Be careful about the possibility that Vitamin C may cause you to
>    retain more iron than you should. Sorry I don't have time to
>    elaborate - others on the list can help explain this further!

I checked the archives and came up with a few related subjects, but
nothing per se about how "vitamin C" can cause iron overload. Could
somebody scare up some citations?

There was one unsupported but intriguing statement, however:

"...For example, meat may have an enzyme for making vitamin C,
thus there is no deficiency even though meat does not have C itself."

Possible, I suppose, but the enzyme responsible for the last step in
converting glucose into ascorbate (vit C), gulono-lactone oxidase (GLO),
is generally accepted as being absent in primates, guinea pigs, some
fruit bat or other, and maybe one or two other animals. I have seen no
observed or hypothesized mechanism whereby exogenous dietary enzymes
could take part in in-vivo ascorbate synthesis.

But, hey, if some wonder food *did* exist that did that, I'd be
the first in line for a serving ;-)

Maybe it's a case of nobody ever having looked for such a thing.

But meanwhile back in reality-land (as in known facts) ascorbate
is still necessary in amounts that have been hashed over very
thoroughly elsewhere. The pathology of chronic subclinical scurvy
(CSS) syndrome via hypoascorbemia in context of the Neolithic/SA Diet
has been postulated & identified but not accepted by the medical
establishment. It's unlikely that research funds will ever be shaken
loose to see just how Paleos' health and metabolisms differ from
the Neolithic majority's. Maybe such high ascorbate requirements
in humans are due to the stress of the Neolithic WOL/WOE.

The best model for Paleo application might be the Ape-modeled 2-5
grams/day based on analogy to their diets. But then this figure
might be inapplicable because, as I have myself pointed out, humans
and apes parted ways a long time ago. The metabolic similarity is
mostly theoretical, but unless some new findings come along, IMO it's
the best guide at this time.