I think it is entirely right that Stuff-it points this issue up - not just scurvy but rickets is appearing again too. The lobbyists in the food industry have a long and effective reach and even so-called healthy foods are adulterated (fruit and vegetables). Poverty, along with ubiquitous marketing has eroded the ability of many people to eat a nutritionally sound diet, particularly when issues such as transport and accessibilty are factored in. While Stuff-it did make the post personal, there appears to be an element of incredulity and even a bit of shaming (but I may be being unduly sensitive given my own idleness in reaching for the biscuits rather than taking a pan and vegetable peeler out. Toast definitely counts as a hot meal and I have never fully grown out of a childish hatred of large numbers of veggies.
Modern Malnutrition in the UK
- Thread starter stuff_it
- Start date
Humans can't store vitamin C (guinea pigs can), OTOH it's added to a lot of fruit flavoured sweets and drinks aimed at children, as well as being present in potatoes.It must be pretty hard to get scurvy given the numbers of children who avoid anything vaguely fruit or vegetable shaped
Thora
Differently Ethical
Ketchup, chips, baked beans I guess...
Do you realise how many of us are, or have been, extremely hard up for several years without getting scurvy?
Also, if this is scurvy, it's been going on, undiagnosed for well over a year while the OP has seen several doctors more than once, and been diagnosed (and treated) for far worse things.
BTW this is urban, not a love-in. If you've got a problem with somebody, say it directly, don't hint.
Even chips contain some vitamin C, not a lot, but some.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
I would be very surprised if you had scurvy.
i never eat fruit and I don't have it.
you really just have to have a tiny amount of it to avoid it.
i never eat fruit and I don't have it.
you really just have to have a tiny amount of it to avoid it.
Miss Caphat
I want it that way
On the one hand, the problem of modern malnutrition is serious and I don't think anyone's laughing about that.
Far-fetched self diagnosis over the Internet, on the other hand....
But the truth is, it does really suck having symptoms for a long period of time without a diagnosis, I've been through that myself and diagnosed myself with all sorts of things so I can sympathise.
Far-fetched self diagnosis over the Internet, on the other hand....
But the truth is, it does really suck having symptoms for a long period of time without a diagnosis, I've been through that myself and diagnosed myself with all sorts of things so I can sympathise.
maomao
普費斯
Also the symptoms of scurvy are pretty much aches and pains, tiredness, a rash and you're teeth falling out. Without the teeth falling out that really could be a lot of things.
kittyP
Pluviophile
It must be pretty hard to get scurvy given the numbers of children who avoid anything vaguely fruit or vegetable shaped
I worked with a kid who ate nothing by turkey dinosaurs and dry toast.
He only drank about half a small cup of milk a day too, no other liquids.
He was surprisingly physically healthy and strong.
maomao
普費斯
Milk has vitamin c.
I was going to say that! And it's not destroyed by pasteurisation, either.
kittyP
Pluviophile
No I am not saying it doesn't.
I am just surprised what people can survive on reasonably healthily is all.
Miss Caphat
I want it that way
So does most bread, even fresh bread from a bakery
Miss Caphat
I want it that way
I had a cousin who would eat nothing but white foods for many years as a kid
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
I don't eat guinea pigs...
That's alright, then.I don't eat guinea pigs...
The article did state that a surprisingly large percentage of people in the UK were deficient in vitaminC. While not conflating this state with full-on scurvy, there are definite health implications. KittyP, my eldest son survived for years on a diet of goats milk and muesli and I concluded that it was, in effect, a remarkably balanced diet but I honestly cannot see that any child eating such a nutritionally sparse diet of turkey and toast can remain healthy. They may appear robust but long term damage to developing skeletal and muscle structure and brain development will almost certainly affect this child's well-being over time. Scurvy, with its olde worlde connotations seems a dramatic example to illustrate the effects of diminished nutrition, but rickets is certainly on the rise, as is Vitamin D deficiency.
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
Also bruising (I've had this despite not generally bruising easily at all).
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
Maybe I should....
I could conclude that my own aches and pains, rough epidermis and most significantly, vanishing teeth must surely be a symptom of scurvy (interweb diagnosis fail - my daughter tends towards self-inflicted hypochondria)...but honesty compels me to admit an addiction to hard drugs and boiled sweets is the most likely culprit.
eta - making no assumptions on your part, though, Stuff-it
eta - making no assumptions on your part, though, Stuff-it
kittyP
Pluviophile
He was severely autistic and his parents and us just could not get him to eat or drink anything else.
We worked with reward systems to try and get him to drink at break time but the poor wee might looked like it was torture as soon as any liquid touched his lips.
I am sure into adulthood yes you would start to see effects of the lack of nutrition but it is surprising what people can and do survive on.
I have worked with other kids on the spectrum with equally weird and lacking diets but who were generally reasonably healthy.
jakethesnake
In bed for Britain
I remember eating nothing but porridge made with water because that was all I could afford for fucking weeks on end (double giro at Christmas, fucked till the end of Jan). It's tough to eat enough, specially if you want a life too. Get thee to a food bank!
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
Jake has a point here stuff_it have you been to a food bank at all?
stuff_it
Too skool for cool
Its mainly cupboard food and I have a sulphite intolerance.
Miss Caphat
I want it that way
so, what do you generally eat? like, what have you eaten over the past week or so?
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
It's an ongoing problem that's arguably been (back) with us since the '80s, when Thatch abolished the requirement for nutritional standards in school meals, in favour of a (much cheaper, so more profitable for catering companies who tendered for school meals contracts) calories-based standard.
I have a mate with rickets. I know plenty of youngsters with vitamin deficiencies and/or anaemia. it's a consequence of being poor and lacking access to simple, cheap and fresh food ingredients, or the wherewithal to buy multi-vits.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Too much carrot juice is a bigger health risk (Caratenosis and liver problems) than type 2 diabetes from fruit sugars is.
ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
Yep. Some surgeries in poorer areas give out multi-vits to children, since Cameron murdered SureStart. They're well aware just how prevalent scurvy and other malnutrition disorders have become again.
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