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II. What we need to eat

    

Different species have different requirements

E.g., ascorbic acid is a vitamin for only a limited number of higher organisms (primates, fruit bat, red-vented bul-bul, guinea pig). These organisms lack gulonolactone oxidase, which is the last enzyme in the pathway for ascorbate synthesis. (Similarly, some creatures, including man, lack uricase, and are therefore subject to gout because uric acid levels in the body may rise too high.)