Buzz
It seems like everyone knows someone who knows of a person who ended up with scurvy in college. The story goes that a guy, for instance, ate only ramen for a month. Or was it pizza, as claimed by one Mytour staff member? Or perhaps porridge, according to a famous Scottish myth.
I have my doubts about these tales. When our staffer was asked about the pizza-eating scurvy victim, they weren’t sure if the time span was a month or six months. As for the student's condition? “Eye patch and wooden leg.” Sure, buddy.
Yet these scurvy stories persist, so let’s dig into whether it’s actually possible to eat in such a way that you could give yourself scurvy, and how long it might take.
What Exactly Is Scurvy?
Scurvy, once famously associated with long voyages of sailors, is caused by a lack of vitamin C. While citrus fruits like lemons and oranges are packed with vitamin C, many other foods, including most fresh fruits and vegetables, also contain plenty of it.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, sailors on extended trips lived mostly on salted meat and hardtack, a type of cracker that lacked vitamin C. In 1747, an experiment suggested that citrus fruits might be a cure, but the medical community, still clinging to the theory of the four humors, was skeptical about a mysterious, life-restoring substance in fruit. The true cause was not fully understood until the 1930s.
Vitamin C is crucial because it's needed for the creation of connective tissue. Collagen, a protein in connective tissue, holds our body together and is found in skin, muscles, blood vessels, and organs. Without vitamin C, the body can produce collagen, but it can't link the collagen strands together, leading the body to deteriorate.
While losing teeth is a dramatic symptom often linked to scurvy in cartoons, it's not the most accurate clinical sign. Early on, scurvy sufferers feel fatigued and sore, followed by other symptoms such as swollen gums and a rash caused by internal bleeding. Open sores may develop, and yes, tooth loss can occur.
How Much Time Does It Take for Scurvy to Develop?
In the past, scurvy was primarily found in extreme situations where people went without fresh food for extended periods, such as during sieges of cities. But what about eating just pizza or ramen for a month? Could that lead to the same condition?
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health conducted an experiment where they had healthy young women follow a diet that lacked vitamin C for a month, though everything else was nutritionally balanced. The women could choose from a special menu, as long as they stayed under 5 milligrams of vitamin C per day—about the amount in one ketchup packet, but seven would exceed the limit.
After 28 days, most of the women had dangerously low blood levels of vitamin C, according to the researchers' standards. However, they didn’t experience any scurvy symptoms. (The goal of the study wasn’t to induce scurvy, just to see how much vitamin C the body actually needs, so the researchers stopped before it progressed that far.)
A single month of poor eating probably isn’t enough to bring on scurvy, but if the poor diet lasted two or three months, the risk would definitely rise.
Ramen doesn’t have much vitamin C. For instance, the chicken flavor of Top Ramen contains zero percent of your daily recommended intake. (On the other hand, the Spicy Lime Shrimp flavor of Cup O Noodles has about 4 milligrams per cup.) If you rely on ramen for your meals, scurvy could become a concern.
I'm still not entirely convinced by the pizza argument, though. While tomato sauce does contain some vitamin C—maybe not a huge amount, but enough that scurvy wouldn't hit you all at once. A big slice of Domino's pizza has nearly five milligrams of vitamin C, and if you're living off Domino's, you'd likely eat several slices daily, which means you'd be getting some vitamin C with each one.
How concerned should I actually be about this?
"Given our current eating habits, where 60 percent of our food intake is highly processed, it's easier to develop vitamin C deficiency and scurvy than most people would think," says Rachele Pojednic, an assistant professor of nutrition at Simmons College.
The first signs of scurvy might not be immediately obvious, either, as they often start with simple symptoms like fatigue and irritability. Obviously, a college student living off ramen noodles is going to feel drained and irritable.
"Personally, I'm deeply concerned about the increase in scurvy (and other nutrient deficiencies)," Pojednic says, "especially given the rise of eating disorders and the popularity of diets that cut out entire food groups—like the so-called carnivore diet."
If you’re envious of polar bears who thrive on a diet of only meat while you can’t, it’s because they produce their own vitamin C and don’t require it from food. Unlike them, we, along with a few other creatures like guinea pigs, are not so lucky. So, if you plan on surviving solely on ramen, at least make sure you have a stock of vitamin supplements.
