Ahoy, ye scurvy dogs! Are you eating your spinach and lemons?
November 4, 2016 11:11 AM   Subscribe

Limestrong is a slightly cheeky but also totally serious attempt to prevent and end scurvy, based in part on an ill-fated Sunkist ad campaign from the 1970s. That was just one of the company's many odd forays into fighting scurvy and sell more California citrus with an awkward nod to the present culture, like Just1.com (1998) and Scurvy Boy Television (2000; both archived sites hosted on Internet Archive), radical marketing approaches for this conservative group. Just like scurvy boy was adopted by cheeky Gen-Y skaters and such in the late 1990s, Limestrong self-promotes through desktop images, photos of cats wearing fruit helmets, and more.

"More" includes a small college scholarship with the bold requirements that:
- The recipients must be College bound
- The recipients must be free of Scurvy at time of award

As stated in the FAQ, yes, the site is for real, and "the real, honest to goodness goal of www.LimeStrong.com is to obliterate Scurvy from the face of the Earth by 2050 by simply bringing common awareness to the problem."

And those scurvy dogs?
We think of scurvy as being a sailor’s disease, and it most certainly was. Men on board ship, eating a diet that consisted mostly of preserved meat and bread, soon suffered from the results of scurvy. But the disease was also surprisingly common among city-dwellers, especially the poor.
...
And the "scurvy dog" part? Well, diseases were a popular insult at the time. It wasn't uncommon to insult someone by saying that they were "poxy" meaning riddled with smallpox or marked by the disease. Such insults were used the way we might today refer to someone as an idiot.

And what has this to do with pirates? Well, as we have seen so often before, pirates operated from the bottom up – the opinions of the crew mattered as much or more than the leadership of the officers. For this reason, pirates often stopped on tropical islands to clean their ships, to party, and to consume native fruits and vegetables. Rum and fruit juice was an especial favorite. Pirates, you see, were much less likely to suffer from the disease.
The importance of vitamins was known well before the vitamins themselves were discovered and named. Vitamines, merged from "vital amines" as as they were first named in 1912 by Polish-born biochemist Casimir Funk, and by 1921,
no one has yet been found who will say exactly a "vitamine" is but it has become recognized that whatever it is, it is necessary for the proper building up of the human system and is of especial value to the young.
("Prof. Jaffa Discusses Advances in Knowledge of Vitamines," California Citrograph, Volume 7)

So drink two eight-ounce glasses of orange juice, with the juice of half a lemon added to each cup, for good measure (Google books preview), as suggested by scientists in 1932 to prevent scurvy, and fully endorsed by the California Fruit Growers Exchange under their Sunkist brand.

But seriously, scurvy is still common and should be diagnosed and treated (Slate, Nov. 20, 2015). Though the numbers are very small, scurvy is on the rise in England, according to official figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre. Between 2009 and 2014, admissions related to scurvy went up by 27% (BBC, January 22, 2016). Limestrong has nutrition information, if you're concerned about vitamin C intake.
posted by filthy light thief (44 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Alternate post title: "PUCKER UP! There are only 179 days left until May 2nd!*" but I thought there would be too much confusion over election-related deadlines and such.

* May 2nd is International Scurvy Awareness Day
posted by filthy light thief at 11:12 AM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


Limestrong

I don't know, I hear the founder got caught taking PEGs (performance-enhancing grapefruit).
posted by leotrotsky at 11:17 AM on November 4, 2016 [4 favorites]


Second video on the page.

The pirate.

That's me.

AMA.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:22 AM on November 4, 2016 [6 favorites]


Scurvy's no pellagra.

And isn't this a riff on cancer awareness nonprofit Livestrong?
posted by GuyZero at 11:30 AM on November 4, 2016


Isn't gout a "meat and bread diet" affliction, too? Does scurvy takes hold first in the spectrum of vitamin deficiencies? You never hear "gouty dogs."
posted by rhizome at 11:34 AM on November 4, 2016


I had a buddy, a poorly socialized CGI artist, that got scurvy. We all mocked him for only eating kraft mac and cheese, only, ever. He said his doctor was incredulous and asked him if he ever even looked at fruit. So, he added the occasional orange to his diet. Kraft mac & cheese and an orange every once in a while is apparently complete nutrition.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 11:34 AM on November 4, 2016 [6 favorites]


Metafilters Own Maciej Ceglowski wrote a great piece on Scott and Scurvy.
posted by adamrice at 11:38 AM on November 4, 2016 [4 favorites]


Kraft mac & cheese and an orange every once in a while is apparently complete nutrition.

At least he's committed to the color scheme.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:38 AM on November 4, 2016 [10 favorites]


At least he's committed to the color scheme.

Having an organizing principle reduces choice and thus simplifies life.
posted by hippybear at 11:41 AM on November 4, 2016 [3 favorites]


"Kraft dinner and an orange" sounds like a better diet than potatoes and milk. And appetizing-looking, too.

Supposedly having scurvy causes your old healed wounds to open back up, even scars from decades ago. Which is the creepiest thing I have ever heard.
posted by blnkfrnk at 11:49 AM on November 4, 2016 [5 favorites]


It's very David Cronenberg.
posted by hippybear at 11:51 AM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


I remember reading in Harper's Index a couple of years ago that one solitary student in the United States got treated for scurvy that year, and I just had to wonder how anyone could possibly do a worse job of feeding themselves than some of the slobs I lived with in university.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:57 AM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


I remember reading in Harper's Index a couple of years ago that one solitary student in the United States got treated for scurvy that year

Stonestock Relentless's buddy, presumably?
posted by tobascodagama at 12:03 PM on November 4, 2016


isn't this a riff on cancer awareness nonprofit Livestrong?

Obviously (if it isn't a stealth viral campaign for reviving LimeWire), and I'm surprised that they didn't come out with a lime green wristband.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:08 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


While Western seafarers went with citrus fruits, it is speculated that the exploratory Chinese fleet under Zheng He addressed the scurvy problem by growing and serving freshly sprouted bean sprouts.

Harnessing the power of the sun to produce fresh vital amines.

The citrus-curing/preventing-scurvy thing was kind of bonkers... In the 17th century England, the British navy suffered more losses from scurvy than from all enemy actions combned. No one knew what caused scurvy, much less how to treat it. Popular opinions at the time was the scurvy was caused by the damp, dark, and cold conditions aboardship or that it was caused by the terrible shipboard food putrefying in the stomach.

James Lind was a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh (Scottish universities at the time were following continental reasoning/enlightenment while English universities kind of devolved into a means for the rich to socialize), wrote his medical degree thesis on venereal diseases (sexually transmitted infections), and earned his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh Medical School and ended up as a ship's surgeon in the British navy abord the HMS Salisbury.

After two months at sea, many of the sailors on his ship predictably developed scurvy; Lind saw this as an opportunity to test his theories on the cause of scurvy. Believing that it was caused by putrefaction of food in the stomach – which he thought could be cured by ingesting acid – he took 12 scurvy-ridden sailors and divided them into six groups of two. To each group he assigned a different daily dietary supplement for two weeks: 1) one quart of hard cider, 2) 25 drops of sulfuric acid, 3) spice paste and a drink of barley water, 4) two oranges and one lemon, 5) half a pint of seawater, or 6) six spoonfuls of vinegar.

While the group that drank cider showed some modest improvement, the sailors who were given citrus fruits were almost fully recovered. Upon treating the other groups with citrus fruit, they too recovered from scurvy.

James Lind promptly wrote up “Treatise on Scurvy” – and was roundly ignored by the admiralty, due mainly to the expense of supplying citrus fruits to every seafarer in the navy.

It was nearly 50 years before the British Navy made lemon juice a compulsory part of a sailor’s diet, which was quickly replaced with lime juice since it cost less (but was less effective than lemons, having less vitamin C per unit of fruit).
posted by porpoise at 12:09 PM on November 4, 2016 [10 favorites]


The pirate.
That's me.
AMA.


What's the capital of North Dakota?
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:10 PM on November 4, 2016


I heard that someone I knew in college got scurvy, and I found it completely believable about that person for many years. Then I found out that everyone knows that about someone at college, the same way they know that the newest dorms were designed to prevent rioting. I don't know what to think now.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:12 PM on November 4, 2016 [5 favorites]


Also:

Supposedly having scurvy causes your old healed wounds to open back up, even scars from decades ago. Which is the creepiest thing I have ever heard.

Vitamin C is essential in the production of collagen, which is basically the glue that holds your body together. (It makes up a quarter to a third of all the protein in your body.) Scar tissue is mostly collagen.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:12 PM on November 4, 2016 [2 favorites]


What's the capital of North Dakota?

The capital of North Dakota is Bismarck. The chief agricultural products of North Dakota are wheat, soybeans and beef, none of which contain enough vitamin C to make them practical for combating scurvy.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:17 PM on November 4, 2016 [5 favorites]


Yeah, I think that collage story is an urban legend.
Supposedly, one of the reasons the Scott expedition to the south pole failed was that everyone had scurvy.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:23 PM on November 4, 2016


Also, I am going to go find a vitamin C pill.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:24 PM on November 4, 2016


No True Scott'sman goes to the south pole.
posted by hippybear at 12:27 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


> James Lind promptly wrote up “Treatise on Scurvy” – and was roundly ignored by the admiralty, due mainly to the expense of supplying citrus fruits to every seafarer in the navy.

Barrow's Boys (which is a great book) is chock full of anecdotes about the British Admiralty ignoring proven solutions to problems that commonly arose during Arctic exploration. "Learn from the natives? That's not the British way! The last boat was too big and got trapped in the ice? Next time we'll send a BIGGER boat, with a LARGER crew!", etc. etc..
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:35 PM on November 4, 2016 [6 favorites]


I've got gout, and I haven't eaten meat for 25 years. The other dietary advice for it (like not eating asparagus) isn't much help either. Allopurinol seems to help though.
posted by enf at 12:45 PM on November 4, 2016


Supposedly having scurvy causes your old healed wounds to open back up, even scars from decades ago. Which is the creepiest thing I have ever heard.

So that explains why, when I stopped drinking gin and tonic with lime, I soon began resenting family members for previously forgotten slights.
posted by vorpal bunny at 12:56 PM on November 4, 2016 [23 favorites]


which was quickly replaced with lime juice since it cost less (but was less effective than lemons, having less vitamin C per unit of fruit).

And this wasn't a problem cause technology shortened naval travel times to the point where scurvy wasn't an issue ....until the South Pole expeditions took months and months and SUPRISE limes aren't nearly as good and everyone gets scurvy.
posted by The Whelk at 12:58 PM on November 4, 2016 [3 favorites]


My favorite fictional scurvy case is in Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride. I always figure if I need to present a believable, nonspecific, serious ailment, that's the one to go with.
posted by asperity at 2:03 PM on November 4, 2016


Full disclosure: I found Limestrong by searching for images of cats with melons on their heads, following an inspiration in the Teen's Head Stuck in Pumpkin thread, which lead me to photos of cats wearing fruit on their heads, where you can see "Mr. Boots" wearing a "lime."

Except I now learned that limecat is likely wearing a pomelo, a fruit that is associated with Mid-Autumn Festivals that are celebrated in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and by ethnic Chinese worldwide. And no one wears pomelo rinds, contrary to what is written on Know Your Meme*, but in Vietnam, some people make extravagant inside-out pomelo sculptures (Google books preview), or fancifully rind carvings (YouTube slideshow). A final taunt from Vietnam: the varieties of pomelos, and how they taste and refresh.

* OK, people may put pomelo rinds on babies, but people put lots of silly things on babies. That's part of the fun of having a baby.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:30 PM on November 4, 2016 [7 favorites]


Doesn't fresh meat have Vitamin C in it? But not preserved meat, as it breaks down over time, hence why it is unsuitable as a source of Vitamin C for long voyages?

Also, when we were little kids a friend of mine who was a very picky eater went through a phase where she would eat literally nothing but peanut butter sandwiches, period. She got scurvy.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 7:28 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


I spent about four months running underwater robots off my company's boat every day, six days a week. I'd stop at a cafe on my way in, get two bagels which I'd eat for breakfast and lunch, then would have PB&J when I got home because I was too exhausted to make anything else happen. Four months of this. Reader, I got...

... a vitamin B deficiency. I still find it deeply disappointing that my summer working on a boat did not result in scurvy instead. Yarr.
posted by olinerd at 9:22 PM on November 4, 2016 [8 favorites]


Yes fresh meat has vitamin C, the Amudsen expedition ate their dogs to avoid scurvy. The Scott expedition had scurvy. While the British stumbled upon citrus as a cure for scurvy, the fact is that limes as a vitamin C source are completely inferior to currants which are native to britain. If only they had known.
posted by Pembquist at 9:23 PM on November 4, 2016


That's why I love the scurvy sltory! Everyone kept fucking up for various reasons!q the cures were all around them! But everything was poorly understood! Cook thought it was sauerkraut that staved off scurvy so everyone ate huge amount of it, no one got scurvy ...but that's cause his botanist insisted on bringing in lots of fresh fruit and vegetables from islands they handed on to study, which the crew then ate.

I think there was at least artificial explication where they knew liver was a was in vitamin C and so ate polar bear liver only to all die from vitamin C overdose
posted by The Whelk at 9:52 PM on November 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


Polar bear liver can cause you to die from Vitamin A overdose, but I haven't heard anything about it containing unusual amounts of Vitamin C.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 6:57 AM on November 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


Rose hips are also very high in vitamin C, and roses are native to Britain, which people found out during rationing. They have a tart flavor almost like hibiscus, but if you boil them into a syrup like the wartime office directed, you destroy most of the vitamins (C is very vulnerable to heat, so you should take your citrus cold.) Although some people are incredibly allergic to rose hips, which I guess they also found out during rationing.
posted by blnkfrnk at 7:23 AM on November 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


People didn't know there were roses in Britain until the 1940s? (Sorry, couldn't resist. I know what you meant.)
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 7:37 AM on November 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


I remember the cod liver oil on scandanivan winter buffets cause otherwise you don't get vitamins (ESSENCE OF FISH)
posted by The Whelk at 7:50 AM on November 5, 2016


I find it interesting that spinach is only mentioned in passing, despite the link between scorbutus and sailors being so well known. Clearly Big Ascorbate continues to suppress the news that they were the lobby behind Popeye all along!
posted by TedW at 8:54 AM on November 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Yeah, polar bear liver (and seal liver) is toxic because it contains a lot of vitamin A, not vitamin C.

It's pretty much impossible to poison yourself with vitamin C, since as a water-soluble compound any excess supplied by the diet is readily secreted in the urine. Vitamin A, on the other hand, is soluble in fat and so tends to accumulate in tissues.
posted by a mirror and an encyclopedia at 10:43 AM on November 5, 2016 [2 favorites]


Generally you'll stop wanting vitamin A once you've had enough, but I guess if you're starving and only have livers to eat, you'll overdo it.

Or at least I can sense my beta-carotene limit, maybe other people don't. I'll go into the grocery store and get all excited about yams (my lifestyle is such that mothafuckin' YAM TIME is a big night), buy a big bag's worth, then have a yam feast for a day, and then be unable to even look at any of the yellow vegetables for a week.

If you're looking for a good book, I can suggest Vitamania by Catherine Price. It was educational and very entertaining.
posted by blnkfrnk at 11:49 AM on November 5, 2016


Or at least I can sense my beta-carotene limit

Wasn't that one of those Scientologist super-powers?
posted by tobascodagama at 12:04 PM on November 5, 2016


I'm pretty sure that if it were possible to overdose on vitamin A by eating sweet potatoes, I would have done it long ago. It's not like they're Airborne tablets.

New life goal: trying all 32 of George Washington Carver's sweet potato preparation methods.
posted by asperity at 12:24 PM on November 5, 2016 [4 favorites]


George Washington Carver's work truly is the gift that keeps on giving. I totally want to try this:

No. 31, SWEET POTATO NUTS

Take one pint of boiled and mashed potatoes, one pint of toasted bread crumbs rolled fine, one pint of mixed nut meats chopped fine (peanuts are excellent); season with salt, a little pepper, also sage and mace if desired; take the yolks of two eggs; stir in two teaspoons of baking powder; whip until light; pour it into the above mixture and stir well; form into small cakes; dip each into the whites of the eggs, then into shredded cocoanut and brown in a frying pan containing a little pork fat (not deep fat) turn; brown on both sides.

posted by blnkfrnk at 1:18 PM on November 5, 2016 [4 favorites]


(peanuts are excellent)

GWC making with the primordial Pepsi Blue.
posted by rhizome at 1:50 PM on November 5, 2016 [3 favorites]


olinerd: "I spent about four months running underwater robots off my company's boat every day, six days a week. "

Okay, I figured out what you meant eventually, but I want you to know I pictured you chasing swarms of robots off the deck with an oar.
posted by RobotHero at 8:51 PM on November 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


« Older why is running so white?   |   Busted: America's Poverty Myths Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments