While the popular image of Pilgrims dying is primarily focused on starvation, it was a combination of starvation, scurvy and other diseases that caused 50% mortality the first winter.
Scurvy is a cluster of symptoms related to low Vitamin C levels in the body. It can occur as quickly as a few weeks in some patients but typically manifests after several months of reduced vitamin C consumption. The diaries of the Pilgrims suggest that many of them had symptoms of scurvy before they landed at Plymouth Rock.
Research in England during WWII tested zero, 10mg/day and 90mg/day of vitamin C. Their goal was to determine how much Vitamin C to put in lifeboats and to ration the amount available among the civilian population.
The data from the experiment was recently reanalyzed using more sophisticated methods than were commonly used in the 1940s and they came up with a different conclusion that the original researchers.
The original conclusion was that 10mg of Vitamin C vastly extended the period of time before symptoms of scurvy showed up. The researchers used the strength of newly healed cuts as their metric. Yes, that is right. They cut the test subjects and then ripped the cut apart about a week later. People were tough back then.
The study also determined that once symptoms appear, the higher level (90mg/day) resolves those symptoms very, very slowly.
The more sophisticated analysis suggests that the 90mg/day is required to indefinitely delay the onset of scurvy in the general population.
They didn't know what they didn't know
The sad thing is that the Pilgrims had the means to avoid scurvy at their feet the entire time they were on land.
Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is water soluble and nearly every green plant has some ascorbic acid in it.
Fresh Eastern White Pine needles in mid-winter have an astounding 200mg-to-400mg/100 grams. A cup of tea a day made from one teaspoon of chopped White Pine needles would have probably been enough to delay scurvy until springtime when green foods became readily available. A cup a day made with ten teaspoons of chopped White Pine Needles would have been required to reverse scurvy symptoms...and even then improvements would have occurred slowly. Source
Violets, some species of which offer green leaves all winter long, were measured at 130mg/100 grams.
Rose hips vary considerably in Vitamin C content but the pulp of most species is probably similar to that of pine needles.
Today
Today there are many Eurasian "weeds" that have naturalized in North America.
Garlic mustard, Chives, Yellow Rocket, Ground Ivy, Chickweed and Plantain are all viable sources of Vitamin C in the winter. Source
Sprouts are also a possibility.
Most manufacturers of 'processed foods' these days add
ReplyDeleteascorbic acid to their products. If they didn't we would likely see scurvy on a regular basis now as many people eat little to no fresh food, vegetables or fruits. They eat nothing but fast food/processed foods which without 'fortification' are almost totally free of vitamins.
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mother english.. during war children given rose hip tablets to prevent scurvy as germans blockaded sea deliveries of such things as oranges
ReplyDeleteFor your locale and mine, staghorn sumac.
ReplyDeleteIt's degraded some, sure, but the fruit holds a sufficient amount of vitamin C until spring, if you somehow forgot to harvest it this fall.
A medium potato has 27mg of vitamin C, if it's cooked with the skin on.
ReplyDeleteStinging nettles or wood nettles (native to US, and widely distreibuted ) are very high in Vit C (higher than oranges) as well as a high protein source (for a plant)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.alimentarium.org/en/fact-sheet/nettle
What about jams and jellies? Does preserving the berries by boiling denature the VitC? Or can I have toast and jam all winter long?
ReplyDeleteI'm told that apple pie and such are merely tasty caloric-storage devices as the vitamin C is destroyed by cooking. A half ounce slice of toast has 48 micrograms of C. You could have toast and jam all winter long as long as you didn't mind not living to the end of winter.
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