Aaarrrrgggghhh! This Pirate be Looking for Fruit.

Do you ever have that need for a particular food? That craving that drives you nuts? Thank goodness I didn't have to leave the house for this one. . . I'm already in my pajamas. I just consumed three oranges in the space of a half hour and they were SO good. Normally, I would just chalk this up to boredom, and the need to do something (eat/snack) to pass the time on a Sunday evening. But then I got to thinking "Why did I choose the oranges instead of the apples, or the bananas, or the potato chips for that matter?". Then I remembered.

In the 1500's, sailors began dropping like flies to an affliction dubbed scurvy. At the time, it was chalked up to not having any way to keep fresh food aboard a ship. But why the onset of this 'sea plague' in this particular age? Hadn't the Vikings, the Phoenicians, and the sailors of the Far East toured the seas for centuries before without scurvy? What no one seemed to note at the time, was that there were two food items that had been introduced to the European diet fairly recently - sugar and rum. Both of which had been brought back to Europe from the Crusades to the Middle East.

"In the 1750's, James Lind, a surgeon's mate on H.M.S. Salisbury, fired by the hardships of the multiple cases of scurvy he had observed on his ship, undertook one of the earliest recorded controlled experiments in human nutrition." Lind Isolated 12 victims of scurvy, divided them into 6 pairs, and regulated their diets. They each were fed according to the ships standard rations:

Water gruel sweetened with sugar
Fresh mutton broth
Puddings, boiled biscuits with sugar, sugared jellies, and jams
Barley, rice, currants, sago, raisins, and wine

Each pair, was then given daily a different supplementary remedy.
Team 1: Cider
Team 2: Vinegar
Team 3: A Sulfuric Acid Mixture
Team 4: Seawater
Team 5: A paste of garlic, mustard seed, and horseradish (The common medical prescription for scurvy at the time)
Team 6: Two oranges and a lemon

"These they ate with greediness," Lind noted in reference to the last team and their citrus fruits, with "sudden and visible good effects". Team 6, recovered from their bout of scurvy within days, while the other teams languished.

In the late 1700's The connection between sugar and scurvy was deemed practical but "unscientific." Vegetables, fruits, berries, and nuts - these natural sources of what we now call vitamin C - had been sweets until concentrated refined sugar (sucrose) was marketed.

I find this story all the more fascinating because of how much I enjoyed those oranges tonight. My diet has been devoid of refined sugars for three weeks now, and I can't remember anything ever having tasted better than a fresh orange. My sweet tooth is satisfied for the evening. Now, off to bed - plenty of rest in conjunction with my citrus binge and lack of sucrose in my system should insure that I do not contract scurvy.

Until next time, me matey!
JamiK