The cost-of-living squeeze and poor diets are putting people at a higher risk of developing scurvy, with a case caused by an acute vitamin C deficiency recently treated at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth.

  • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    23
    ·
    19 hours ago

    I would not have thought this possible, since Vitamin C is added to so many processed foods these days.

    • SomeGuy69@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      10 hours ago

      Is it cheaper to leave vitamin C away? Or is it a conservation/by product? I’m asking because if they can leave it away they’ll do so. But I’m no expert in food processing nor vitamin addition laws.

      • Justas🇱🇹
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        10 hours ago

        Sometimes it’s used for flavour, and sometimes it is used to regulate acidity.

    • Peppycito
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      13 hours ago

      We thought we cured scury, like, 6 times and it keeps coming back.

  • 2ugly2live@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 hours ago

    How? Isn’t vitamin C everywhere? They have to have fruits and veggies, and even french fries and ketchup have some of the vitamin C. Like, I have an awful diet and I still manage to avoid scurvy. That’s wild.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    15 hours ago

    Christ people, eat some potatoes or some onions. My diet is pure dogshit and I still manage to not get scurvy. It’s a HARD disease to get. Other nutritional deficiencies are much easier to accidentally come across.

    Didn’t know bariatric surgery was a risk factor though, that’s interesting.

  • vacuas@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    18 hours ago

    I looked up why scurvy kind of went away and it’s bc you get vitamin c in potatoes which made so much sense bc who doesn’t love potatoes

    • PugJesus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      15 hours ago

      Even before potatoes, scurvy was rare to the point of being almost unknown on land, simply because it is such a hard disease to get. You don’t need a lot of Vitamin C to stave off scurvy, and just about anything that isn’t ‘grain and preserved meat’ has SOME vitamin c in it.

      • vacuas@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        14 hours ago

        Yeah something tells me this isn’t so much a “cost of living thing”, junk food is more expensive then vegetables these days

        • PugJesus@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          14 hours ago

          Even potato chips contain enough Vitamin C to stave off scurvy. It is a hard disease to get. The guy in the article sounds like he had other deficiencies too, so it might’ve been a cost of living situation for him, legitimately, but scurvy alone is something you have to work to get. Like ‘meat-only diet’ level malnutrition.

          • vacuas@aussie.zone
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            13 hours ago

            I thought for a second that couldn’t be the case bc mikaela peterson is on a carnivore diet but she’s probably rich enough to afford all kinds of supplements

  • paysrenttobirds
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    18 hours ago

    Doctors put him on a dose of 100 milligrams of vitamin C per day, as well as folic acid and multivitamins.

    “He also started eating a lemon daily,”

    Makes my teeth hurt