Linus Pauling — "Vitamin C is the most important of all vitamins."
Vitamin C is the most important of all vitamins.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Among all vitamins the human body requires, Vitamin C is uniquely critical—not just adequate but paramount. Pauling extended this beyond basic nutrition: he argued that most people are chronically deficient and that megadoses of ascorbic acid could prevent and treat everything from the common cold to cancer, fundamentally redefining vitamin intake from avoiding deficiency disease to actively optimizing health and longevity.
Relevance to Linus Pauling
Pauling won Nobel Prizes in Chemistry (1954) and Peace (1962), but spent his final decades championing orthomolecular medicine. He co-authored 'Vitamin C and the Common Cold' in 1970 and personally consumed grams of ascorbic acid daily. His biochemical expertise gave this claim scientific credibility even as mainstream medicine rejected megadose therapy. The conviction was genuine and consistent, though it ultimately strained his scientific legacy.
The era
Pauling promoted this view through the 1970s and 1980s, when public trust in pharmaceutical institutions was eroding after thalidomide and Vietnam-era disillusionment. Natural health movements were growing rapidly, and cancer mortality remained stubbornly high despite aggressive chemotherapy regimens. His claims about Vitamin C fighting tumors found a receptive audience among patients desperate for alternatives, making this quote culturally charged far beyond nutrition science.
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